Crossover Markets has raised $12 million in its Series A funding round to further expand its role as the leading ECN in digital assets and bring 24/7 trading to additional asset classes.
The digital asset technology firm, known for its Crypto ECN going by the name of CROSSx, offers ultra-low-latency and quote-driven matching technology, combined with tailored liquidity and smart order routing.
Crossover Markets recently reported over $3.15 billion (USD) in notional trading value, 415,450 trades, and over 141 billion quotes processed on CROSSx in Q1 2024.
Illuminate and DRW join list of strategic investors
The Series A funding round was led by Illuminate Financial (Illuminate) and DRW Venture Capital (DRW VC), who join a growing list of strategic investors that includes institutions such as Flow Traders, Laser Digital, Two Sigma, Wintermute, and retail brokers such as Exness, Gate.io, GMO, Pepperstone, Trademax, and Think Markets.
Crossover also announced the addition of new Board Members. Mark Beeston, Founder and Managing Partner of Illuminate Financial, will join Crossover’s board of directors along with Kevin Wolf, CFO at American Financial Exchange and former CEO of Euronext FX.
With the added funding, Crossover Markets will continue to invest in its team and technology, further strengthening its position in the market.
“Institutional market structure is changing in digital assets”
Brandon Mulvihill, Co-Founder and CEO of Crossover Markets, said: “This fundraise comes at a time when institutional market structure is changing in digital assets. Prime brokerage and central clearing models are advancing, creating fungibility and exposing execution venues that hold clients captive. We are honored to welcome strategic shareholders who share our vision and passion to create the world’s leading execution-only trading venue for digital assets. Illuminate brings enormous depth of knowledge across the institutional landscape, and DRW adds significant expertise as one of the largest, multi-asset market makers in the world.”
“Digital assets market structure is experiencing a pivotal change driven by institutional needs and activity. Simultaneously, we are witnessing the early-stage emergence of discussions around 24/7 trading across traditional asset classes. CROSSx is designed to be among the fastest, highest-performance venues in any asset class. More specifically, we developed the platform to bring 24/7 trading, price precision and size precision characteristics to traditional markets where technology is lagging in such areas. Bolstering governance and broadening corporate strategy to address the needs of clients in this evolving landscape were atop our agenda when thinking about Board expansion. Mark and Kevin bring a wealth of experience that spans equities, fixed income, FX, and digital. We are elated to add dynamic leadership by welcoming Mark and Kevin to Crossover.”
Mark Beeston, Founder and Managing Partner, Illuminate Financial, commented: “Illuminate Financial has been building out a portfolio of institutional grade digital assets infrastructure companies since 2019 as part of our thesis around the convergence of traditional finance and digital asset market structure. Crossover adds best-in-class execution capability to that portfolio, serving both the immediate and long-term needs of financial institutions that wish to trade digital assets with a future-proof 24/7 low latency infrastructure that traditional markets are increasingly moving towards.”
Kim Trautmann, Partner at DRW Venture Capital, added: “DRW VC has a proven track record of supporting early-stage companies committed to delivering market structure innovations both in the traditional and crypto markets. Crossover Markets was a natural fit for our portfolio, and we’re excited to support its experienced management team to deliver a best-in-class technology solution for digital asset trading that delivers superior execution while minimizing counterparty risk.”
