Markets
Crypto exchange backed by Schwab and Fidelity goes live
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A crypto exchange backed by financial giants Charles Schwab, loyalty Digital assets and Citadel Titles officially launched trading in four crypto assets, the company said Tuesday.
EDX Markets first announced plans to launch a “non-custodial” exchange in September, about two months before FTX collapsed. Paradigm, Sequoia Capital and Virtu Financial are among the other early backers.
The announcement comes days after BlackRock filed an application to launch what would be the first spot exchange-traded fund for Bitcoin in the United States, confirming that despite the crypto industry’s black eye from FTX and other bad actors in 2022, and the cooling of US regulators this year, long-term institutional interest has not diminished.
The EDX exchange allows the trading of bitcoin, ether, litecoin And Bitcoin cashnone of which were named “crypto asset securities” in the lawsuits filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission against Binance and Coinbase two weeks ago.
EDX said it strives to ‘meet the needs of the world’ largest and most sophisticated financial institutions“, many of whom remain curious about crypto but skeptical of centralized crypto service providers, if not because of the failures of many in 2022, then because of the regulatory uncertainty in which the remaining players now find themselves .
To allay any fears of misappropriation of funds, EDX plans to operate as a “non-custodial” exchange, meaning that instead of directly managing client assets, it will act as a platform on which a network of companies will be able to execute and settle transactions between cryptocurrencies. assets and fiat currencies.
EDX also plans to launch a clearinghouse business this year to facilitate the settlement process, but will keep customer assets held at third-party banks and a cryptocurrency custodian.
The company also announced that it has closed a second round of funding from new investors, including options exchange operator Miami International Holdings and subsidiaries of proprietary trading firms DV Trading, GTS, GSR and Hudson River Trading .