Fidelity, Schwab, and Citadel Back New Crypto Exchange EDX Reports TradFis Dive Deeper Into Digital Assets

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Earlier this week, EDX Markets launched its digital asset platform, the company shared on Tuesday. But what made this launch grab so much attention? Its founding investors, which include big traditional companies like Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets and Sequoia Capital, alongside Paradigm and Virtu Financial.

The company also recently closed a new funding round which attracted additional strategic investors including Miami International Holdings, DV Crypto, GTS, GSR Markets LTD and HRT Technology. The new capital will be used to help develop EDXs trading platform, among other things.

The platform aims to be the crypto marketplace of choice for industry leaders, with plans to leverage traditional financial practices to provide liquidity, competitive pricing and a non-custodial model to mitigate conflicts of interest, he said. The platform has also introduced a retail-only quote in the crypto markets, which allows users to get better prices for retail orders.

The platform will have limited offerings for the foreseeable future until there is more regulatory clarity, EDX Markets CEO Jamil Nazarali said in April. The current cryptocurrencies that are tradeable on EDX are pretty lightweight, with just four options: bitcoin, ether, litecoin, and bitcoin cash.

The crypto exchange initially grabbed headlines after it was announced in September, two months before FTX collapsed, and was originally scheduled to launch in November, Bloomberg reported.

The launch comes at a time when a lot of heat is building for the crypto industry as regulators like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission crack down on major crypto exchanges like Binance and Coinbase for allegedly violating the securities laws, among other reasons.

EDX support also indicates growing interest in digital assets among traditional players – even as crypto markets are down from all-time highs.

Separately, last week BlackRock, which manages approximately $9 trillion in assets, filed an application with the SEC to form a cash bitcoin ETF to be held on Coinbase. The filing was made through iShares, a fund management unit under the BlackRocks wing.

While there are a handful of futures-based bitcoin ETFs, the SEC has shot down other attempts by companies to create spot-based bitcoin ETFs in the past. Given that the filing came at a pivotal time for the US-based crypto ecosystem, there could be some behind-the-scenes conversations that could be going on between BlackRock and the SEC. But whether or not BlackRock has a chance to fight for approval is TBD, but my crystal ball (not always accurate) thinks the asset management giant is still unlikely to win approval. of its bitcoin spot ETF, given the recent regulatory measures that have transpired.

This week in web3

SEC Director Says Nothing Has Changed for the App Even as the Crypto Industry Rumbles (TC+)

As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continues to monitor the crypto industry, the agencies’ chief enforcement officer, Gurbir Grewal, said the regulator is more concerned about securities being sold in a format that respects the rules. existing laws rather than labels or technology.

The UK has not lost its appeal for venture capital (TC+)

After spending part of the week interacting with the UK tech scene, TechCrunch can confirm that reports of his death are greatly exaggerated. VCs continue to flock to London to strike deals, and many are happy to call it home. The latest decision is a16zs: the firm has chosen London for the first international office of a16z cryptos, which will be led by general partner Sriram Krishnan. And it’s clear his conversations with UK policymakers and regulators played a role in the decision.

The last capsule

For last week’s episode, I interviewed Patrick Kaminski, Director of Digital Innovation for web3 and metaverse at LOral, and Manon Cardiel, Head of Strategic Planning and Partnerships within web3 and metaverse at Loral.

Patrick is the leader behind NYX Professional Makeups GORJS DAO, which launched in mid-January in hopes of combining the NFT world and the beauty industry into the metaverse. While Manon worked on the GORJS project, she also helped launch NFT collections for companies like Mugler and Yves Saint Laurent.

Oral is best known for its beauty products, but the 100+ year old company is also home to a plethora of brands that many of us use and own like Maybelline, Yves Saint Laurent, Armani, Kiehl’s, Valentino, Prada, CeraVe and more.

We discussed why LOral wanted to enter the Web3 ecosystem, what it’s like to incorporate a DAO into a traditional brand, and how other brands and companies are entering – or not entering. not – in the cryptosphere.

We also dove into:

Growing brand loyalty Consumer demand and feedback Brand skepticism of NFTs, metaverse Advice for brands looking to go online3

Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the latest episodes, and leave us a comment if you like what you hear!

Follow the Money DeFi infrastructure provider Maverick Protocol raised $9 million Yield-generating DeFi platform Earn Network raised $2.7 million funding round Binance Labs led a funding round of $10M for Cosmos-Focused Smart Contracts Platform Neutron Singapore-based digital payments provider dtcpay has raised $16.5M in pre-Series A round TapiocaDAO, a powered money market by LayerZero, raised a $6 million funding round

This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as TechCrunch’s own reports.

To get a roundup of the biggest and most important crypto stories from TechCrunchs delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here.

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