Digital assets just found another venue to trade at.
And its not in the United States.
MAX Markets Limited, a London-based digital, multi asset exchange ecosystem, announced the first key steps of its UK regulatory roadmap for market launch. MAX is designed for professional investors and will offer a regulated marketplace, subject to FCA approval, to enable the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, security tokens and other digital assets.
Providing access to digital products via the familiar secure and regulated channels, MAX’s approach highlights the paradigm shift from traditional to digital exchanges including post trade. In the current market, investors are expected to prefund digital activity with their inventory immobilized in a closed ecosystem of the exchanges choosing. MAX is unique in its facilitation of inventory mobility, within a familiar market structure as a key feature will be access to third party digital asset exchanges and custodians as well as access to fiat banking using a ground breaking middleware layer.
Over the last year, MAX has been engaged in accessing various opportunities whilst concurrently developing the visionary concept and creating the supporting infrastructure, and recently applied to the FCA for a UK Multilateral Trading Facility (‘MTF’) licence. The MAX ecosystem will include up to 3 exchanges (UK, Switzerland & in Asia), a guarantee fund (ensuring contract performance) and a digital custodian.
MAX will leverage its strong digital assets network and a senior industry team with a broad knowledge of financial markets infrastructure business and operations. This includes Hirander Misra, Deputy Chairman, and Scott Riley, Chief Post Trade Officer, who were previously co-founders of Chi-X Europe and Tony Harrop, Director of Technology, who was formerly CTO at PLUS Markets Group (now NEX Exchange).
Scott Riley, Chief Post Trade Officer of MAX said, “I am delighted to participate in this unique opportunity as digital is a hugely exciting market development and it is here to stay. He added, “Participants want access and product, customers want certainty and recourse and we’re just giving them the technology and governance to achieve that for this new asset class in a framework they are familiar with.”
The experienced Non-Executive Directors include Dr. Iain Saville, ‘father of CREST’ and a recognised expert in securities and settlement, who has been appointed as Chairman; Director John Holland, Chairman of KCG Europe and previously UBS Investment Bank board member, who is renowned for his deep experience in global broking and market making; and Director June Aitken, an experienced NED and ex HSBC and UBS senior executive, with a strong background in global equities and emerging markets.
Founding shareholders in the company include GMEX Holdings Limited, part of GMEX Group Limited (“GMEX”), a recognised global leader in digital exchange and post trade technology who will supply its globally established GMEX Fusion technology platform, as well as DAG Global, whose mission is to deliver merchant banking services in the UK to SMEs and digital firms – providing access to the benefits of digitisation in finance with bespoke services provided by people, empowered by technology and adhering to the highest standards of compliance and security.
Hirander Misra, Chairman and CEO of GMEX Group and Interim CEO of MAX, commented: “After the success of Chi-X Europe and our rewarding working relationship, it has been great to take on the challenge of launching a London based digital assets ecosystem, alongside Scott.” He added, “The team behind MAX is exceptional and the expertise they bring in the banking, exchange and regulatory space alongside digital assets expertise coupled with strong partnerships will place MAX at the forefront of the market.”
Sean Kiernan, Founder and CEO of DAG Global, added “DAG is excited to be part of this new venture and bring its network and associated business opportunities to the platform. He added, ”We will also look to expand MAX’s solutions to include the addition of merchant banking services in the future.”
Eterna Borderless Venture Studio, an initiative run by leading companies in the blockchain industry to support the growth of the Algorand ecosystem, today also announced that MAX has been chosen to receive support, mentorship, training and funding to build on the Algorand platform. Algorand has built the world’s first open, permissionless, pure proof of stake blockchain protocol to enable frictionless finance and economic exchange.
