Qredo Acquires Derivatives Trading Platform Xena Exchange, Forms 'Qredo Markets'

July 19, 2022 - Qredo announced the acquisition of the team and technology behind Xena Exchange, a self-custodial trading derivatives platform built by former professionals from JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank.

The new unit will be called Qredo Markets and will pair with Qredo's decentralised custody infrastructure. Xena Exchange's technology will create institutional-grade tools for accessing digital asset liquidity.

Xena Exchange's trading infrastructure has been developed over five years and includes spot and derivatives trading engines, smart order routers, and algorithmic trading tools.

Combined with Qredo's Layer 2 network and self-custodial wallets, this technology will provide a suite of decentralised liquidity products including:

• Liquidity from self-custody: Xena Exchange's core technology and matching engine will be integrated with Qredo Layer 2, enabling liquidity to be accessed directly from institutional self-custody.

• PowerSwap: The new product will enable users to instantly swap QRDO, USDC and USDT, with no slippage and no counterparty risk.

• Over-the-counter swaps and trustless dark pools: Liquidity providers such as Wintermute and GSR will have the ability to provide liquidity in Qredo's dark pools.

These features will enable Qredo users to access liquidity opportunities from self-custody, without exposure to counterparty risk.

Anthony Foy, Qredo CEO commented, "As centralised crypto firms freeze withdrawals amid market turbulence, self-custody has never been more critical. The acquisition of Xena Exchange represents a significant milestone on our journey towards creating the next generation of self-custodial wallets. Our combined tech stack will enable institutions to access liquidity in a way that is true to the trustless spirit of blockchain — without ever needing to give up control over funds."

Anton Kravchenko, Qredo Markets Director said, "At Xena Exchange we believed that exchanges should not keep the clients' funds, so we built a non-custodial trading environment with high-speed liquidity for institutional and algorithmic traders. As Qredo Markets, we will be able to deliver trading solutions with the unmatched security of Qredo as a decentralised custodian."

Alexey Semichastnov, Qredo Markets Product Director said, "Dozens of software engineers have worked on our derivatives matching engine for five years. The result is something that simply cannot be bought on the open market, and thus gives Qredo an immense competitive advantage. We are confident that our technology has found the right home, and are delighted to join a stellar team that can take it to the next level."

Qredo is a decentralised digital asset management infrastructure and product suite designed to unlock new opportunities for institutional investors in digital assets and decentralised finance. Qredo's Layer 2 blockchain protocol enables users to seamlessly transfer and settle BTC, ETH, and ERC-20 tokens. Assets are secured by Qredo’s advanced Gen 2.0 multi-party computation (MPC), which provides tier-1 bank security and institutional-grade governance.