In this installment, Forefront SVP & Head of Media Relations Michael Kingsley sits down with Brandon Mulvihill and Anthony Mazzarese, co-founders of Crossover Markets, the world’s foremost institution-only venue for cryptocurrency trade execution. Launched in 2022, the company officially debuted the CROSSx venue this past March.
In the episode, Brandon and Anthony discuss their career journeys from FX market veterans to the founders of Crossover. They go on to explain how, historically, crypto execution venues were primarily based on Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) models, and how this homogeneity presented an opportunity for disruption.
They also discuss the benefits of CROSSx’s electronic communication network (ECN) model – tighter prices, greater scalability, rich market data and deeper liquidity pools – for institutions, which are constantly seeking best execution and lower costs.
When asked how Crossover meets the unique preferences, needs and requirements of this audience, Brandon and Anthony emphasize the importance of providing reliable data. Market makers, they say, are interested in behavioral characteristics and want to feel confident in their ability to price consistently and aggressively to consumers. ECNs deliver this layer of predictability, as market makers interact with specific identifiers and, over time, can come to understand behaviors and price accordingly.
Later in the episode, Brandon and Anthony discuss their decision to partner with fellow co-founder and CTO Vladislav Rysin to build the technological foundation behind the CROSSx platform. They felt that Vlad “spoke the language” of crypto, FX and equities, and possessed the expertise to take the best attributes of all those asset classes and deliver them to the market in a clean, efficient manner.
Lastly, when asked about what’s next for Crossover, Brandon alluded to new partnerships and technology enhancements coming in Q4 2023. The team also teased several updates, including a new order type, various technology enhancements (with the goal of executing trades in under 20 microseconds) and the launch of a binary protocol to further decrease execution time.
See below for a breakdown of the discussion. Happy listening!
Timestamps:
0:50 – What lessons does the FX industry have for today’s cryptocurrency trading? How did your careers in the FX trading space lead to founding Crossover?
4:10 – Tell us a little about your ECN. How does it work, and how is it different from what’s been done before?
8:35 – Can you talk about how Crossover decouples trade execution from brokerage and custody services?
10:30 – What goes into building an institutional crypto ECN?
15:05 – How are the needs of an institutional crypto investor different from the needs of a retail crypto investor?
19:15 – What questions should institutional investors and market participants be asking themselves when selecting a venue?
Launched in 2020, At the Forefront: Fintech Conversations is an ongoing audio and video series that has been developed to help you stay informed as Forefront highlights key industry developments and delve into the people, companies and thought processes that keep the capital markets and fintech sector humming. To learn more and listen to previous episodes, click here.
