Amber Group
also invests · investor profileUnicorn · $3B17 known investors
Amber Group is a digital assets investment and portfolio management firm that serves institutional and individual investors with trading, liquidity provision, and infrastructure solutions for crypto and Web3 projects.
Also known as Amber · Amber Premium · WhaleFin
Investors · 17
Also in the syndicate · 5
Valuation · disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed — follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Amber Group is a digital asset financial services firm founded in 2017 in Hong Kong by six former Morgan Stanley market-making professionals — Michael Wu, Tiantian Kullander, Wayne Huo, Tony He, Luke Li and Thomas Zhu. The firm began as an institutional market-making and cross-exchange arbitrage business built on low-latency quantitative trading systems and expanded into a diversified provider of trading, lending, asset management, liquidity provision, research and infrastructure services for crypto and Web3 clients.
The company organizes its offering around several lines: Amber Premium, a digital wealth management business for high-net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth and institutional clients that the company's website identifies with the Nasdaq ticker AMBR; asset management using quantitative strategies; advisory, liquidity, investment and research; and infrastructure and security services. Amber Labs, the group's research and investment arm, conducts primary market research and invests in Web3 projects, while amber.ac operates as an accelerator running hackathons and developer programs. Consumer-facing products have included the WhaleFin mobile app, launched in 2020, and an Amber Premium Visa card for digital asset payments.
Leadership is headed by co-founder Michael Wu as CEO, with Thomas Zhu as CTO and Steve Zhang as CFO; Amber Premium is led by Wu as chairman and CEO alongside president Vicky Wang, chief product officer Yi Bao, CFO Josephine Ngai, VP of engineering Alex Zhang and head of Americas Jeffrey Wang. Board representation listed on the company site includes Bo Shen and Dr. Wenbo Yu of Fenbushi Capital and Noorsurainah Tengah of the Brunei Investment Agency.
Founding story
Six colleagues from Morgan Stanley's electronic market-making operations — Michael Wu, Tiantian Kullander, Wayne Huo, Tony He, Luke Li and Thomas Zhu — founded Amber Group in Hong Kong in 2017 to address a gap in institutional-grade liquidity and risk management for continuously trading crypto markets. Sources describe founders drawn from Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley backgrounds who bootstrapped an initial market-making and arbitrage engine with their own capital before raising a $28 million round led by Paradigm and Pantera Capital. One secondary source dates the founding to 2018 rather than 2017.
Business model
Amber sells trading, lending, structured and yield products, liquidity provision, asset management and infrastructure services chiefly to institutional investors and wealthy individuals, positioning itself as a 'private banking experience' for digital assets rather than a retail coin exchange. It also runs an investment and research arm (Amber Labs) that takes positions in early-stage Web3 projects.
As described in 2021, between 70% and 80% of revenue came from net interest margin: Amber takes customer deposits, pays an interest rate, and lends the pooled funds at higher rates, earning the spread. About 15% of revenue came from trading fees. The company said it was on track to book $500 million of revenue in 2021 and had been profitable since inception.
Traction
Reported traction includes 500 institutional clients and $1 billion in assets under management as of April 2021, cumulative trading volume rising from $250 billion at the start of 2021 to over $500 billion by June 2021 and over $1 trillion cumulatively by 2026, more than 1 million WhaleFin registered users by late 2021, and roughly 700 employees by mid-2022. Total disclosed venture funding was $128 million across two rounds as of June 2021, before later Series B+ and Series C raises.
Latest developments
As of early 2026 the company is running Amber Premium as its digital wealth business identified with the Nasdaq ticker AMBR, promoting an Amber Premium Visa card, dual-currency products and a new ETH/BTC trading pair, and reporting client counts based on KYC verification as of 31 December 2025. Recent activity includes an inaugural 2026 webinar and a February 4 macro outlook webinar, 'Institutional Dialogues 2026', participation in Consensus Hong Kong 2026 around a 'One Amber' ecosystem theme combining AI and crypto, an Agentic Finance Forum on June 10 featuring A-MM, and amber.ac programs including BUIDL_QUESTS 2026 and an OPC Hackathon in Singapore.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Amber Group reached unicorn status in 2021 and was valued at about $3 billion in early 2022, positioning itself among the larger institutional crypto liquidity providers; one source cites cumulative trading volumes of over $500 billion by mid-2021 and over $1 trillion cumulatively as of 2026. Comparable firms cited include Wintermute and B2C2.
The firm emphasizes its founders' institutional trading pedigree, an in-house trading team it describes as among the largest in the industry, a unified liquidity pool for execution across many venues, and a licensing and compliance footprint across multiple jurisdictions, combined with a private-banking-style service model rather than a self-directed exchange.
Technology
Core technology includes a low-latency market-making and arbitrage engine capable of millisecond cross-exchange execution, algorithmic and high-frequency trading systems, quantitative strategies, and a proprietary unified liquidity pool spanning dozens of centralized and decentralized venues. The firm reports multiple SOC 2 Type II certifications and operates a Web3 security team that has won capture-the-flag competitions.
Go-to-market
Amber reaches clients through direct institutional sales and advisory relationships, a self-service platform and mobile app for individual users, and an ecosystem-building program of webinars, industry conferences (Consensus Hong Kong, Web3 Festival HK), university outreach, and the amber.ac accelerator with hackathons and developer quests.
Institutional investors, token issuers, banks and fintech firms, and high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, with a stated push into individual investors; the website also references sports teams, game developers, brands and creators as client categories.
Geography
Founded in Hong Kong with 2021-era operations in Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul and Vancouver; the headquarters was later moved to Singapore, with additional hubs cited in Dubai and London and a designated head of Americas. Web traffic in 2021 was reported as predominantly from the United States, with visitors also from Poland, Hong Kong, Mongolia and Canada.
History
After its early funding round, Amber shifted from a quantitative trading shop to a diversified crypto financial services provider, launching a unified liquidity pool in 2019 and the WhaleFin retail app in 2020. A $100 million Series B led by China Renaissance in June 2021 gave the firm a $1 billion pre-money valuation, and a $200 million Series B+ led by Temasek in early 2022 lifted the valuation to roughly $3 billion. The company relocated its headquarters to Singapore, acquired Japan's DeCurret in 2022, and grew to about 700 employees by mid-2022. Following the FTX collapse the firm contracted, cutting roughly 40% of staff, and closed a $300 million Series C led by Fenbushi Capital US in late 2022. In 2023-2024 it repositioned its institutional offering as 'Amber Pro' and tightened compliance, and in 2025 secured a Dubai VASP license. Co-founder Tiantian Kullander died in November 2022.
Risks & controversies
Amber was hit by market contagion following the FTX collapse in 2022, undergoing a strategic contraction and cutting about 40% of its workforce, and raised a $300 million Series C partly described as protecting affected customers and shoring up liquidity. Management has cited fragmented and evolving global crypto regulation as an ongoing challenge. Co-founder Tiantian Kullander's unexpected death in November 2022 removed a key figure from the founding team. Some source details conflict (e.g., founding year 2017 vs. 2018, and differing board member lists across time).
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Competitors · 3
by search overlapCompanies competing with Amber Group for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Timeline · 14
launches, deals, and filingsAmber Premium scheduled a webinar on digital asset macro outlook and institutional strategy for February 4, and Amber Group announced 'Institutional Dialogues 2026', Consensus Hong Kong 2026 participation and Web3 Festival HK 2026 events; its accelerator amber.ac opened registration for BUIDL_QUESTS 2026 and ran an OPC Hackathon in Singapore.
Amber Group secured a Virtual Asset Service Provider license in Dubai and expanded ESG-compliant green mining initiatives.
During 2023-2024 Amber repositioned its core offering toward 'Amber Pro' for institutions and tightened liquidity and compliance frameworks.
Co-founder Tiantian Kullander (known as TT) died unexpectedly during sleep on 23 November 2022 at age 30; Amber Group commemorates him as its late co-founder.
Temasek led a $200 million Series B+ round that raised the company's valuation from about $1 billion to approximately $3 billion.
$200M source ↗
Amber Group acquired Japanese firm DeCurret to gain access to a tightly regulated market.
Amber moved its headquarters to Singapore in connection with the city-state's digital payment token regulatory framework and APAC growth.
Following market contagion from the FTX collapse, Amber Group closed a $300 million Series C round led by Fenbushi Capital US, described as intended to protect affected customers and shore up liquidity.
$300M source ↗
Amber Group was affected by market contagion following the FTX collapse and underwent a strategic contraction including a 40% reduction in workforce.
Series B of $100 million led by China Renaissance, with Tiger Brokers, Tiger Global Management, Arena Holdings, Tru Arrow Partners, Sky9 Capital, DCM Ventures, Gobi Partners and existing investors Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures and Blockchain.com. Proceeds earmarked for global expansion, hiring and strategic acquisitions including cybersecurity and licensed businesses.
$100M source ↗
Amber Group achieved multiple SOC 2 Type II certifications covering its security controls.
Amber Group raised $28 million in an early round that sources date to 2019 (announced/closed February 2020), led by Paradigm and Pantera Capital with additional investors, funding expansion beyond pure trading into broader institutional services.
$28M source ↗
Amber launched WhaleFin, a mobile application bringing trading and custody tools to retail users; the app reportedly surpassed 1 million registered users by late 2021.
Amber launched a proprietary unified liquidity pool enabling execution across dozens of centralized and decentralized venues.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Amber Groupambergroup.io · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Amber Group do?
- Hong Kong-founded digital asset firm offering institutional trading, liquidity, wealth management and Web3 infrastructure services.
- Who are Amber Group's investors?
- Amber Group's investors include Base Partners, Coinbase Ventures, DCM Ventures, Digital Finance Group, Dragonfly, Fenbushi Capital, Gobi Partners, Hack VC and 4 more.