Cboe Global Markets Finalizes Investor Partners for Cboe Digital Business

November v29, 2022 - Cboe Global Markets, a provider of global market infrastructure and tradable products, announced it has completed the syndication of minority equity interests with a group of thirteen firms becoming investor partners in the Cboe Digital business.

The investors represent a broad and diverse range of market participants, including retail and institutional intermediaries, liquidity providers and brokers, including B2C2, DRW, Galaxy Digital, GSR, Hidden Road, IMC, Interactive Brokers, Jane Street, Jump Crypto, Robinhood, Susquehanna International Group, tastyworks and Virtu Financial.

Through their equity ownership, each firm will directly benefit from the growth of Cboe Digital and close strategic and commercial alignment. The group of investor partners join a roster of commercial partner firms supporting the Cboe Digital business.

"We are pleased to have this group of investor partners joining us as equity owners of Cboe Digital, with many of them already fully onboarded to the Cboe Digital platform and the remainder expected to be completed in the coming months," said John Palmer, President of Cboe Digital.

"Each of these partners share Cboe's deep commitment to bringing a trusted, regulatory-first approach to the digital asset space. The time is right for the Cboe Digital model in the digital asset space, and we look forward to leveraging the combined expertise of these firms as we work together to grow, shape and define this asset class to benefit market participants across the globe."

"Cboe Digital's foundation is based on the core tenets of a trusted financial exchange – transparency, regulatory oversight, and customer protection – underpinned by responsible innovation and the value of an intermediary-driven model," said John Deters, Chief Strategy Officer, Cboe Global Markets. "Together with our partner firms, we will look to explore opportunities across digitization, including discovering new areas of tradable products specific to managing digital asset risk, building new digital technology in a safe and compliant way, and helping craft the future of digital assets with proven market expertise and regulatory experience, which we believe will help the space mature and ultimately grow."

Additionally, as part of its operation of the Cboe Digital business, Cboe plans to form a Digital Advisory Committee comprised of a cross-section of investor and commercial partner firms. The committee will be tasked with advising Cboe on the ongoing development of the Cboe Digital spot and derivatives markets, and more broadly, the digital asset space. Cboe plans to leverage the engagement and collaboration with these market participants to help accelerate growth of Cboe Digital as a resilient, trusted and transparent digital asset venue.

Cboe Digital (formerly ErisX) operates a spot market, derivatives market and clearing platform, and has plans to develop and distribute a range of digital asset data products, subject to regulatory approval. Using market data based fundamentally on actionable bid and offer prices from the spot crypto market, Cboe Digital plans to develop a benchmark data stream to help market participants evaluate the appropriateness of crypto execution prices.

Cboe Digital aims to provide a digital asset market rooted in the exchange principles of transparency and regulatory compliance, supported by a network of intermediaries, providing client-driven solutions that help institutions fully embrace this emerging asset class.

Digital assets are expected to continue to benefit from a regulated derivatives market and central clearing to help mitigate counterparty risk — providing more efficient price formation, additional hedging tools, enhanced transparency, and deeper liquidity. Cboe believes meeting the demand for trading digital assets with the advantages of exchange trading is beneficial for all investors, and intermediaries have a key role to play in the ongoing development of Cboe Digital spot and derivatives markets.