Illuminate Financial and DRW Venture Capital led a $12 million Series A financing round for Crossover Markets, an ultrafast execution-only cryptocurrency trading platform. The nature of cryptocurrency trading is changing to accommodate both higher-level institutions that require a choice of venues and counterparties for trading as well as players who prefer the ease of a vertically integrated model.
As one of the few ultra-low-latency electronic communication networks (ECNs) in the cryptocurrency space, Crossover Markets, which joined with prime broker Hidden Road last month, is making a big splash, according to CEO Brandon Mulvihill.
In contrast to an ECN model, crypto exchanges use a central limit order book execution model, which means it doesn’t matter if the exchange has one client or a million clients, there’s only ever one pool of liquidity and one market data session, Mulvihill said.
“We can have up to 50 independent market data sessions and 50 pools of liquidity if we onboard 50 takers of liquidity,” Mulvihill stated in an interview. As evidenced by our rate card, our concept offers value to both the creator and the taker. Each party is charged one basis point: the maker and the taker. As per the news release issued by the firm, in the first quarter of this year, Crossover Markets handled notional trade value of over $3.15 billion.
Mark Beeston, the founder of Illuminate Finance, is going to be added to Crossover’s board of directors. In addition to retail brokers like Exness, Gate.io, GMO, Pepperstone, Trademax, and Think Markets, current investors include Flow Traders, Laser Digital, Two Sigma, and Wintermute.