A consortium of leading broker-dealers, global market makers and venture capital firms announced the launch of EDX Markets (EDXM), a first-of-its-kind exchange that will address latent demand for digital asset trading by enabling safe and compliant trading of digital assets through trusted intermediaries. The new exchange will combine proven technology provided by MEMX with best practices from traditional financial markets and tighter spreads enabled by greater liquidity, to support secure, fast and efficient cryptocurrency trading for U.S. retail and institutional investors.

EDXM will enable a highly liquid cryptocurrency ecosystem that aggregates liquidity from multiple market makers to reduce spreads and improve transparency. This commitment to price discovery and efficiency is expected to result in better prices for investors than those offered by existing cryptocurrency exchanges. EDXM operates as a fully independent entity backed by financial industry leaders including Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets℠, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital and Virtu Financial. Additional market participants are expected to partner with EDXM over time.

MEMX, an innovative, customer-centric market operator founded in 2019, will provide the technology infrastructure for EDXM. Using scalable exchange architecture purpose-built by MEMX to extend across a range of markets, EDXM will meet the needs of the world’s largest and most sophisticated financial institutions as well as those of retail investors.

By leveraging a network of select digital custodians to safeguard assets, trades will be netted and settled on the blockchain for greater speed and efficiency at lower cost, eliminating the need for expensive bilateral settlement. Customer security and regulatory compliance are also core foundational principles for EDXM. In particular, it will remove significant conflicts of interest that affect existing cryptocurrency exchanges by separating responsibility for operating the exchange from the entities trading on it.

EDXM has made a number of senior leadership hires and will continue to expand its executive team in the coming months. Jamil Nazarali, formerly Global Head of Business Development at Citadel Securities, serves as the Chief Executive Officer of EDXM; Tony Acuña-Rohter, who previously served as Chief Technology Officer at ErisX, through its acquisition by Cboe Global Markets, has joined as CTO; and David Forman, formerly Chief Legal Officer at Fidelity Brokerage Services and General Counsel for Fidelity Digital Assets℠, is General Counsel. They will be joined by additional hires from across the cryptocurrency and traditional financial services sectors. Representatives from the founding member firms comprise EDXM’s Board of Directors.

Mr. Nazarali said, “It is a privilege to lead EDXM as we build this exciting new trading ecosystem, and I am grateful for the participation, support and guidance of our consortium members. We look forward to welcoming additional participants to the exchange, which will drive ongoing trading in this important asset class while creating a virtuous cycle of continually enhanced liquidity and efficiency supported by MEMX’s cutting-edge technology.”

EDXM’s Board of Directors commented, “Crypto is a $1 trillion global asset class with over 300 million participants and pent-up demand from millions more. Unlocking this demand requires a platform that can meet the needs of both retail traders and institutional investors with high compliance and security standards. With MEMX-supported digital infrastructure that eliminates technological and organizational bottlenecks, EDXM will be a safe entry point to crypto and serve as the exchange of choice for trading digital assets on a platform designed for and used by leading financial institutions.”

Jonathan Kellner, CEO of MEMX said, “We are excited to partner with EDXM on this important and innovative venture. This marks a new chapter for MEMX as we bring our scalable market technology to other asset classes and market operators.”

Source: EDXM