Fidelity Investments and Citadel Securities were among the financial titans that announced Tuesday that a consortium of companies would launch EDX Markets, a cryptocurrency exchange. According to reports, Virtu Financial, Sequoia Capital and Paradigm are supporting the crypto trading platform. Although the story first appeared in June’s first week, the news was confirmed by the companies this week. They also appointed a chief executive officer.
EDX Markets Plans to ‘Remove Significant Conflicts of Interest That Affect Existing Cryptocurrency Exchanges’
Citadel Securities and Charles Schwab published Tuesday’s press release revealing plans by Fidelity Investments to open a crypto-exchange. The exchange will be called EDX Markets, and the former Citadel executive, Jamil Nazarali, will be the platform’s CEO.
The EDX launch date remains unconfirmed, however, the engine for trading will be managed by MEMX. Also known as the Members Exchange. The Wall Street Journal reports that the high-speed trading company Virtu Financial, and the venture firms Paradigm and Sequoia Capital are behind EDX’s upcoming launch.
EDX is a new crypto exchange that will serve institutional investors as well as retail investors. EDX aims to “remove significant conflicts of interest that affect existing cryptocurrency exchanges,” the EDX press release published on Tuesday notes.
Fidelity has been into cryptocurrencies and bitcoin for quite some time, but Citadel’s Ken Griffin has been a skeptic. In March 2022, Griffin’s perspective on crypto assets changed, and he mentioned the securities giant planned to make moves in crypto. Following Griffin’s commentary, months later in June, it was reported that Citadel, Charles Schwab, and Fidelity would launch an exchange.
“We know there is significant interest in this cryptocurrency space and we will look to invest in firms and technologies working to offer access with a strong regulatory focus and in a secure environment,” Mayura Hooper, a spokesperson for Charles Schwab said at the time.
At the end of July, Charles Schwab’s asset management subsidy launched its first crypto-related exchange-traded fund (ETF). Fidelity, meanwhile, announced that in June, it would be hiring individuals to manage digital currency custody and crypto trading, amid the crypto snow.
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