Two former Jefferies Financial Group executives will launch a new cryptocurrency exchange for institutional investors.
The exchange, dubbed Crossover Markets Group Inc., is scheduled to debut in “late summer to early fall” following the completion of a recent seed funding round.
Crossover Markets’ website describes the new exchange as a “digital asset exchange designed to meet the liquidity needs of institutional clients.”
We’re excited to officially announce the launch of Crossover Markets! More announcements coming soon! https://t.co/2igfAQleaS#crypto #DigitalAssets #institutional #fx
— Crossover Markets (@crossover_mkts) April 26, 2022
Jefferies is the largest independent full-service investment bank headquartered in the United States and the seventh largest investment bank in the world by revenue, according to Dealogic.
The exchange is led by co-founder and CEO Brandon Mulvihill, who previously ran Jefferies’ foreign currency prime brokerage business. The exchange’s other co-founder is CCO Anthony Mazzarese, a longtime business partner of Mulvihill. They are also joined by technologist Vlad Rysin, the former chief technology officer of Euronext FX, a trading services company.
The new exchange will focus on offering improved technology that accelerates cryptocurrency trading and reduces latency to the standards expected by institutional investors in traditional forex or stocks. Mazzarese says this is often lacking in retail-oriented exchanges:
“There seems to be a notion that latency doesn’t matter when it comes to trading crypto. We don’t agree.”
“We surveyed our network of institutional relationships worldwide and one of the biggest and most common requirements was reliable 24/7 technology with the same levels of service and customization features you are used to from other markets such as FX or equities. That is exactly what Crossover Markets will offer.”
Mulvihill said that while the vast majority of traditional institutional investors have not yet entered the crypto space, the space is changing rapidly, he stressed that exchanges need to evolve the technology as market maturity evolves.
Related: Crypto Gains Confidence as an Investment But Still Lags Behind Other Options: Bitstamp Report
On Tuesday, global crypto exchange Bitstamp released a survey report showing that a majority of the 28,615 institutional and retail investor survey respondents believe crypto will overtake traditional investment vehicles within a decade. No fewer than 80% of the institutions surveyed said yes.
Although the two executives left Jefferies in March to found this new exchange, Jefferies himself has been growing his crypto services business under the leadership of Alexander Yavorsky, chief executive of the firm’s Financial Institutions Group (FIG) investment banking. Yavorsky said the company is exploring crypto services in trading, prime brokerage and wealth management.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/former-jefferies-fx-brokers-launching-institutional-crypto-exchange Former Jefferies FX brokers launch institutional crypto exchanges