Finance giants Fidelity, Citadel Securities and Charles Schwab launch crypto exchange

A conglomerate of banking giants and other traditional finance companies, including top Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities, have today announced the launch of a Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency exchange.

This major crypto news story is about EDX Markets (EDXM), a new crypto platform the companies involved in its development say will be one-of-a-kind exchange whose backers include a group of broker-dealers, venture capital firms and market makers.

Other than Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab, and Citadel Securities, EDXM is also supported by Paradigm, Sequoia Capital and Virtu Financial, according to details shared in a press release.

The group expects many more financial companies to join through future partnerships with EDXM.

A ‘$1 trillion global asset class’

As per the announcement, the EDX Markets exchange will offer tighter spreads and benefit from greater liquidity as backed by the above traditional finance players. The platform targets bringing the best-in class crypto offering to the market, with interest in the burgeoning asset class not lost on the legacy firms.

The EDXM’s Board of Directors, which comprises of representatives of the highlighted founding members, commented via a statement:

“Crypto is a $1 trillion global asset class with over 300 million participants and pent-up demand from millions more. Unlocking this demand requires a platform that can meet the needs of both retail traders and institutional investors with high compliance and security standards.”

Jamil Nazarali, the EDXM Chief Executive Officer (formerly at Citadel Securities as Global Head of Business Development) said the exchange will help drive further adoption of crypto – which he sees as an “important asset class.”

EDX Markets will offer bitcoin and crypto trading for US retail and institutional investors, according to the news release.

Major traditional players warm up to crypto

The launch of the exchange comes as several traditional banking and investment providers add crypto services and products to cater to growing institutional and retail demand.

In August, and as reported by Invezz, Charles Schwab launched its first crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). The same month also saw leading global asset manager BlackRock make a move with a partnership with Coinbase (read about it here).

Meanwhile, Fidelity, which launched the digital assets unit in 2018, recently allowed its clients to add Bitcoin to their 401(k) accounts. The company is also reportedly eyeing Bitcoin trading for its brokerage account clients (the firm has some 34.4 million such accounts).