IG Group, a London-headquartered spread betting and CFD trading provider, has entered into an agreement to acquire futures exchange, Small Exchange, from Foris DAX Markets, the parent company of Crypto.com. The deal comes a year after the holding group completed the sale of its 39% stake in the Chicago-based exchange.

IG Seeks to Readmit Small Exchange

In December 2021, IG Group agreed to sell its subsidiary North American Derivatives Exchange (NADEX) as well as Small Exchange, noting that the deal “delivers a significant return" on the previous investments made in these entities and "enables additional investment across all our businesses.”

At the time, June Felix, the CEO at IG Group, noted that the deal will give the Group the room to sharpen its focus on integrating and expanding the US options and future business through its tastytrade and tastyworks franchises, both in the United States and internationally.

However, the company announced on Monday that re-admitting the futures exchange into its network will enable it “to continue expanding its range of products and services available to retail investors and traders in the U.S. and to leverage the Small Exchange’s trading technology.” The firm said Small Exchange, which was launched in 2019, boasts of “a world-class trading system, risk-monitoring system and matching engine.”

IG Seeks to Build Up Small Exchange to Become 'Market Leader'

Although based in the UK, IG Group has a good presence in the United States. The Group operates tastylive, a Chicago-based financial content network targeted at traders and investors. Additionally, the group operates another Chicago-based platform, tastytrade, which is an online platform for trading in options, futures, and stocks.

In addition, the company run IG North America, IG US and tasty software solutions. The firm believes Small Exchange, which is registered as a Designated Contract Market with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, can help it achieve its innovation goals.

“The future of market structure in the US depends heavily on product innovation at the exchange level, and I’m confident we can build an exchange that will scale and become a market leader over the next decade,” explained Tom Sosnoff, the Founder of tastylive.

Meanwhile, IG Group has initiated the third trance of its share buyback programme following the £150 million program announced in July 2022 and the £50 million extension in January 2023. The goal of the programme is to reduce the company’s share capital, the brokerage said.

Finance Magnates reported that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission recently highlighted that DailyFX, an IG Group-owned trading news portal, was not allowed to solicit investments from investors. However, IG Group clarified that the portal is designated for European and Asian traders.

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