Two former heads of financial group Jefferies are about to launch a new cryptocurrency exchange aimed at institutional investors. An exchange called Crossover Markets Group Inc. is due to debut “late summer/early fall” following the closing of a recent seed funding round.
The Crossover Markets website describes the new exchange as “a digital asset exchange designed to meet the liquidity needs of institutional clients”, while the official twitter announces the creation of the exchange and upcoming announcements.
“We are pleased to officially announce the creation of Crossover Markets! More announcements coming soon!” Crossover Markets tweeted.
According to Dealogic, Jefferies is the largest independent, full-service investment banking company headquartered in the United States and the world’s seventh largest investment bank by revenue.
The exchange will be led by co-founder and CEO Brandon Mulvihill , who previously led Jefferies’ primary foreign exchange brokerage business. Another co-founder of the exchange is commercial director Anthony Mazzarese , a longtime business partner of Mulvihill. They will also be joined by technologist Vlad Rysin , former CTO of Euronext FX, a trading services company.
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The new exchange will focus on offering advanced technologies that speed up cryptocurrency trading and reduce waiting times to the standards institutional investors expect from traditional currencies or stocks. Mazzarese says this is often lacking in retail-focused exchanges.
“There seems to be an opinion that delay doesn’t matter when it comes to cryptocurrency trading. We do not agree with this,” he said. We polled our network of institutional relationships around the world and one of the biggest and most common requirements was 24/7 reliable technology with the same service levels and customization features they are used to in other markets like FX or stocks. This will be exactly what Crossover Markets will provide.”
Mulvihill said that while the vast majority of traditional institutional investors have not yet entered the crypto industry, the situation is changing rapidly and he stressed the need for exchanges to advance technology in line with market maturity.
On Tuesday, global crypto exchange Bitstamp released a survey report saying that a majority of the 28,615 institutional and retail investor survey participants believe that cryptocurrency will overtake traditional investment vehicles within a decade. As many as 80% of institutional respondents answered in the affirmative.
Although the two executives left Jefferies in March to create this new exchange, Jefferies itself is expanding its crypto services business under the leadership of Alexander Yavorsky , managing director of Financial Institutions Investment Banking Group (FIG). Yavorsky said the company is looking into cryptocurrency services in trading, prime brokerage and asset management.
