Crossover Markets, a proprietary trading platform for ultra-fast execution cryptocurrencies, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Illuminate Financial and DRW Venture Capital.
Cryptocurrency exchanges are evolving to accommodate the needs of both players who want the simplicity of a vertically integrated model, and higher-level institutions who want to choose their custodians, where they are allowed to trade, and with whom they transact.
Last month, Crossover Market Partnered with prime broker Hidden RoadAccording to CEO Brandon Mulvihill, the company is flagshipping itself as one of the only ultra-low latency electronic communications networks (ECNs) in the cryptocurrency space.
In contrast to the ECN model, crypto exchanges use a central limit order book execution model, so whether an exchange has one customer or a million, there is always only one liquidity pool and market data session, Mulvihill said.
“If you sign up 50 liquidity takers, you can have up to 50 independent market data sessions and 50 liquidity pools,” Mulvihill said in an interview. “Our model provides value to both makers and takers, and that’s reflected in our fee schedule. We charge makers one basis point and takers one basis point.”
Crossover Markets said in a press release that it handled more than $3.15 billion in notional trading volume in the first quarter of this year.
Mark Beeston, founder of Illuminate Financial, will join Crossover’s board of directors. Existing investors include Flow Traders, Laser Digital, Two Sigma and Wintermute, as well as retail brokers such as Exness, Gate.io, GMO, Pepperstone, Trademax and Think Markets.
