CHICAGO, Sept. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Seed CX, the first licensed cryptocurrency exchange to offer institutional trading and settlement for both spot market and CFTC-regulated derivatives, today announced a $15 million Series B funding round. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures, bringing Seed CX’s total funding to date to over $25 million.
Seed CX will use the latest round of financing to expand its physical trading infrastructure, broaden its network of institutional trading groups, and more than double its team to close to 40 people, primarily in operations, market surveillance, and technology.
“The growth of digital assets as an asset class will be based on the adoption of institutional investors and professional traders, who require a trading experience that is on par with that of other instruments, such as equities and commodities,” said Edward Woodford, Seed CX’s co-founder and CEO.
“As a licensed exchange for both spot and derivatives trading, we deliver the operational risk safeguards, strong institutional technology, operational support, and regulatory compliance that institutions demand. What is particularly exciting is that our unique offering brings large institutional traders, who have so far sat on the sidelines, into the crypto space for the first time."
Seed CX provides institutional investors and professional traders with the market structure and technology they need to confidently add cryptocurrencies to their portfolios and investment strategies, in particular:
- Trading – Seed CX supports FIX connectivity and multiple trading desks, and offers a diverse crypto and fiat product suite, the ability to integrate with popular institutional order management systems, and easy market monitoring.
- Risk Management and Operations – Seed CX protects market participants through an active regime of trade surveillance, segregated trader accounts, audit trails, and circuit breakers, all on a stable, reliable, and secure infrastructure and backed by a dedicated account team.
- Settlement and Custody – Seed CX, through its settlement engine, Zero Hash, offers physical settlement for a range of fiat and digital assets, as well as custody through its proprietary Digital Asset Vault.
“Institutions are seeking regulated, secure, and reliable crypto venues with diverse products that allow them to earn strong returns,” said Salil Deshpande, Managing Director at Bain Capital Ventures. “Today, trading venues are retail focused, limited to spot trading, often unregulated, and in foreign jurisdictions. The lack of institutional exchanges is the single largest barrier to crypto asset class growth. Seed CX is serving this unmet need of institutions and has assembled an outstanding team of executives to support this vision.”
Seed CX and its subsidiaries hold the following registrations and licenses: Swap Execution Facility (CFTC), Introducing Broker (NFA), Money Services Business (FinCEN), and Money Transmitter (15 states, including Delaware, Illinois, and Connecticut), and it has a pending BitLicense with NYDFS and a pending Broker Dealer registration with FINRA.
To learn more about Seed CX, please visit www.seedcx.com.
About Seed CX
Seed CX is a Chicago-based licensed digital asset exchange and the first to offer institutional trading and settlement for both spot market and CFTC-regulated derivatives. Seed CX is backed by Bain Capital Ventures. Other investors include trading firms CMT Digital, Queueco, Tetras Capital, well-respected crypto investing companies, including F2Pool, Konza Capital, OKCoin USA and Divergence Digital Currency Fund, and investment bank XMS Capital. Seed CX’s Board is composed of co-founders Edward Woodford and Brian Liston, and lead Series A investor Adam B. Struck from Divergence Digital Currency Fund. Salil Deshpande from Bain Capital is on the Board as an Observer.
About Bain Capital Ventures
Bain Capital Ventures invests from seed to growth in enterprise software, infrastructure software, crypto, and industries being transformed by data. Bain Capital Ventures has helped launch and commercialize more than 200 companies since 1984, including DocuSign, Jet.com, LinkedIn, Rapid7, Rent the Runway, SendGrid, SurveyMonkey, Taleo, Turbonomic, TellApart, Redis Labs, and SysDig. Recent crypto investments include Basis (a stablecoin), Compound (money markets for crypto assets), several other crypto investments in stealth including three focused on decentralized derivatives, and several crypto hedge funds. Bain Capital Ventures has approximately $3.9 billion of assets under management with offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York, and Boston. Follow the firm via LinkedIn and Twitter.
Media Contact: Hunter Stuart, hunter@propllr.com, (312) 721-6168