24 Exchange, an over-the-counter (OTC) platform established by the Founder of Fastmatch Dmitri Galinov, announced that it has raised a $14.25 million funding round led by Point72 Ventures, a Venture capital firm based in New York.
The OTC platform said on December 2 that the investment will support the continued expansion of the firm’s robust multi-asset trading platform designed to offer additional asset classes, including equities and cryptocurrencies to investors. Such an expansion aims to bring 24 Exchange’s new trading options to its rising base of institutional market clients.
Point72 Ventures, owned by Hedge-fund legend Steven Cohen, led the 14.25 million funding round for 24 Exchange, a new startup that wants to give investors 24/7 access to the stock market.
Pete Casella, Partner at Point72 Ventures, talked about the development and said that 24-hour stock trading is a huge opportunity that may appeal to retail traders who want to trade after work hours and on weekends. This is exactly the market that 24 Exchange seeks to target.
24 Exchange, a new trading platform, wants to alter the way investors have been trading for decades, making the stock market look more like the cryptocurrency market, which never closes.
While traditional stock trading in the US operates from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm ET, Monday to Friday, digital assets trade non-stop, with several of the biggest trading activities often happening over the weekends.
24 Exchange, whose parent company is based in Bermuda, currently provides foreign exchange and crypto trading. The three-year-old trading platform stated it wanted to enable investors to purchase and sell currencies more easily in the US and mentioned that it was already doing that in Bermuda.
Dmitri Galinov, the CEO and Founder of 24 Exchange, stated that: "In the company's first 24 months, we've successfully delivered an over-the-counter FX trading solution to clients that offer significantly reduced costs and improved functionality. We look forward to putting this additional operating capital to work to further expand our offerings beyond FX Non-Deliverable Forward (NDF) trading, FX Swaps, FX Spot and our most recent addition, cryptocurrency trading."
24 Exchange made headlines in October after it was reported that it was in the process of seeking the approval of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and filed for an application to operate a national securities exchange.
Markets: Exchanges or Over-the-Counters?
Traders are most at risk when the market is closed in their geographical locations, this is what 24 Exchange is trying to eliminate by offering 24/7 retail trading in equities across all global markets. The OTC platform aims to deliver an unmatched set of benefits to retail US equities traders wherever they are located. As reported by Finance Magnets, the company is operated by 24 Exchange Bermuda Limited, regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority for activities based on conducting digital asset business, pursuant to the Digital Asset Business act.
24 Exchange recently acquired the New York-based 11B technologies for an undisclosed amount. The acquired company offers brokerage solutions and integrations for OTC venues, brokers and professionals. 11B has been offering low latency software and connectivity solutions to 24 Exchange in FX Spot and FX Swaps.
In March, 24 Exchange set a record for NDFs ADV (single-counted) for $456 million and another single-day record volume in FX NDFs when in excess of $800 million was traded.
In August, the platform stated that its average daily volume (ADV) for its FX NDFs has reached $100 million, and revealed that a Wall Street giant, JP Morgan is one of the active clients using its FX NDFs.
NDFs are cash-settled forward instruments and are traded over-the-counter between two parties. The involved parties normally settled the difference between the contracted NDF price or rate and the prevailing spot price or rate on an agreed notional amount.
Most traders often ask which is the best between trading on exchanges or over-the-counter (OTC). Trading products on the OTC markets normally gives traders greater flexibility compared to their more regulated exchange-based counterparts. Trading on exchanges like The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has limitations in terms of their physical locations and official central organizations. But, OTC transactions are conducted electronically, which is more convenient and normally cheaper for investors.
