In a press release published earlier this morning, cryptocurrency exchange ErisX announced the closing of a Series B round of funding which included a list of prominent investors including Fidelity Investments and Nasdaq Ventures.
$27.5 million was raised in the investment round and alongside Fidelity and Nasdaq, the funding round attracted funding from cryptocurrency mining behemoth, Bitmain, blockchain technology company, ConsenSys and Monex Group – the parent company of online stock trading platform, TradeStation.
In a previous funding round, CTC Group Investments, Digital Currency Group, DRW Venture Capital, Pantera Capital and Valor Equity Partners had participated – and they all provided additional support for this Series B funding initiative. Other companies who invested during that first round included TD Ameritrade, Virtu Financial, NEX Opportunities, Cboe Global Markets, Nico Trading, Third Stone Partners, CMT Digital, Susquehanna International Group, C2 Capital Management, XR Trading and ED&F Man Capital Markets.
ErisX plans on operating an intermediary-friendly, CFTC regulated futures exchange which they have registered. Furthermore they plan to act as a clearing organization – for which registration is pending, together with a spot market for digital assets.
“With increasing financial support from leading edge firms, ErisX stands to provide the most robust, secure and regulated digital asset offering available to both institutional and individual participants”, stated ErisX CEO, Thomas Chippas. “Closing this second round of funding enables us to continue building our modern platform and expand our team.”
In addition to the actual investment, ErisX suggest that they will rely on the depth of experience and knowledge of their investors in achieving the objective of providing a single platform for digital asset spot and regulated futures contracts.
Some of their investors commented on the development. Joe Lubin – co-founder of cryptocurrency Ethereum and CEO of ConsenSys suggested that ErisX’ formation is an important step in providing for the continuing convergence of traditional and digital asset classes within the global institutional financial services world. “We are excited to invest and to be working with the extremely credible team. We look forward to seeing ErisX drive significant growth in institutional flows in both spot and futures digital asset markets in 2018”, said Lubin.
John Bartleman, President of trading platform, TradeStation, said that he had seen an increased interest from its customers in investing in the digital asset space. His view is that ErisX have identified a gap in the market and that TradeStation are partnering with them in an effort to bring sophisticated traders into the digital asset investment arena.
This view correlates with that of online stock trading platform rival, TD Ameritrade – who invested significantly in the initial funding round earlier this year. At that time, Tim Hockey – CEO of TD Ameritrade, stated that its strategic investment in ErisX would provide the opportunity to assist ErisX in developing cryptocurrency products which Hockey believes fill a gap in the market for investors within the digital currency ecosystem.
Jihan Wu of Bitmain is of the belief that its customers have been seeking various hedging solutions. He added that customers would find this strategic partnership beneficial as it aids the development of a regulatory compliant exchange which will provide spot and futures’ contracts in one platform.
Nasdaq and Fidelity did not respond to Reuters with regard to the value of their respective investments in ErisX. However, Chippas did confirm ErisX plans for the capital investment as being to “build out our infrastructure and secure the appropriate steps are taken to develop a regulated market for digital assets”.
