Crossover Markets Launches First-of-its-Kind Execution-Only Digital Asset Trading Venue CROSSx

The firm's seed investment round was funded by investors including Exness Ltd., Flow Traders, Gate.io, GMO Internet Group, Nomura's Laser Digital, Pepperstone, Think Markets, TMGM, Two Sigma and Wintermute Ventures.

March 21, 2023 - Crossover Markets Group a digital asset trading technology firm which focuses on the liquidity requirements of institutions in the spot and derivative cryptocurrency markets announced the launch of CROSSx, its execution-only cryptocurrency Electronic Communication Network (ECN). 

The firm's seed investment round was funded by investors including Exness Ltd., Flow Traders, Gate.io, GMO Internet Group, Nomura's Laser Digital, Pepperstone, Think Markets, TMGM, Two Sigma and Wintermute Ventures.

CROSSx brings to market one of the fastest crypto trading engines in the world, designed to dramatically decrease trading costs,  improve execution quality and enhance market data capabilities. Crossover aims to avoid conflicts of interest by decoupling trade execution from custody and brokerage, giving institutions the ability to freely choose their own credit counterparties. As an execution-only trading venue provider, Crossover does not hold client funds, directly handle assets or carry counterparty risk.

Crossover's Chief Executive Officer Brandon Mulvihill and Chief Commercial Officer Anthony Mazzarese most recently spearheaded the FX Prime Brokerage business at Jefferies. 

Arriving from Euronext FX, Crossover Chief Technology Officer Vlad Rysin brings experience in building and operating execution venues in equities and FX; earlier he served as CTO of Credit Suisse FICC, and CTO of FastMatch (eventually sold to Euronext).

Mr. Mulvihill said, "We are delighted with the financial backing of global industry leaders in retail brokerage, market making, quantitative trading, banking, and crypto-native firms. Our consortium partners share our vision and have paved the way to create scale and opportunities for other industry participants to join our platform and participate in future rounds."

Crossover's model aims to leverage best practices and order logic from the equities and FX markets, seeking to deliver effciencies. With sub-20 microsecond matching engine latency and throughput of millions of messages per seconds.

CROSSx also provides customisation allowing clients to create custom dark and lit liquidity pools so they can trade with whom they want based on desired trade size, spread, toxicity and skew protection. 

Jeff Wecker, CTO at Two Sigma, said, "As the digital assets space evolves, diverse and reliable execution venues for institutional trading are critical. We are excited to support a team with a track record of success in traditional finance in their effort to bring necessary innovation to the digital assets markets."

Michael Lie, Head of Digital Asset Trading at Flow Traders, added, "We are delighted to be working with Crossover on this latest venture and strongly believe CROSSx can address the demand for an institutional-grade infrastructure, something Flow Traders strongly supports."

Olivier Dang, Head of Ventures at Laser Digital, said, "The Crossover platform will drive greater efficiency for market participants by providing ultra-low latency execution. The team brings unique Tradfi expertise to the digital asset ecosystem and we are looking forward to working closely with them on scaling up CROSSx."

Damian Bunce, Chief Customer Officer at Exness, said, "The CROSSx ECN applies a tried-and-tested Tradfi liquidity model to the digital assets industry. As a major liquidity provider of crypto assets, we wanted to be an early investor in the project and team."

Ken Nakamura, CEO at GMO Trust, said, "CROSSx provides a highly efficient and dependable execution platform for sophisticated institutional market participants, spanning both traditional finance and digital asset ecosystems. Leveraging GMO Internet Group's robust foundation in both areas, we eagerly anticipate collaborating closely with the Crossover team."

Crossover Markets is a digital asset trading technology firm focused on meeting the unique liquidity requirements of institutions in the spot and derivative cryptocurrency markets. CROSSx, the company's execution-only cryptocurrency Electronic Communication Network (ECN), is powered by the industry's fastest and most advanced matching engine and includes order logic that enables clients to choose whom they want to trade with. Led by a team with decades of FX trading, prime brokerage, technology and artificial intelligence experience, Crossover is ushering the next big wave of institutions into the crypto market.