Amsterdam-based D2X, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange backed by hedge fund giant Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures, has gone live with institutional market participants Flow Traders, Basis Capital Markets and Algorithmic Trading Group.
Licensed by Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), D2X comes out the gate with 7-days-a-week trading in cash-settled BTC-EUR and ETH-EUR Calendar Futures, followed by USD-denominated Calendar Futures & Options scheduled for early 2025.
Futures and options account for a huge amount of trading in traditional markets, but crypto derivatives are disproportionately small. Up to now, the crypto derivatives market has been dominated by the Panama-based centralized exchange Deribit. However, a buoyant crypto industry is seeing new entrants emerge.
Unlike crypto-native exchanges, D2X offers an alternative post-trade model that includes cash collateral management services in partnership with a tier-1 EU credit institution, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.
“The dilemma today is you have to pick between seven days a week or regulatory compliance in the end,” said D2X cofounder Theodore Rozencwajg in an interview. “The ambition behind D2X was to be the first crypto derivatives exchange where institutions will be able to trade seven days a week and on a venue that’s regulated in a tier one jurisdiction.”
D2X CEO Frederic Colette emphasized the fact that cash is accepted as collateral and interest is returned to the client via the exchange’s banking partner. “This is something that you don’t get usually in unregulated exchanges, because they use crypto assets, so stable coins, usually,” Colette said in an interview. “With D2X, our clients will deposit euros and they will get remuneration.”
D2X raised $10 million in March this year, led by Point72 Ventures and including GSR Markets, Tioga Capital, Fortino Capital and Jabre Capital.