Blockchain firm eToroX, a subsidiary of global investment platform eToro, announced today the launch of an institutional-grade trading API called AlgoX Prime.
The trading API (application programming interface) will work with the eToro X digital asset exchange as the company works to attract institutional and professional business.
With trading volumes pressured, notwithstanding the revival in the bitcoin price, attracting and servicing institutional customers has become more important for crypto exchanges.
Although eToroX is somewhat shielded by its parent company’s other revenue streams, chiefly from its social trading business, of which it is the pioneer, there’s only so much of the retail trading pie to go around.
Maturing crypto markets
Offering institutions such as trading firms and hedge funds the ability to plug their algo trading directly into eToroX’s backend to take advantage of its low-latency colocation services, is just the latest indication of the rapidly maturing crypto trading scene.
Speaking at the Consensus Asia event taking place in fintech hub Singapore, Doron Rosenblum, eToroX managing director, said: “AlgoX Prime, our new API trading program, offers sophisticated trading capabilities to institutional and corporate traders. We believe that it will open the door for institutional traditional financial algo trading companies to trade cryptoassets, and by doing so, greatly increase market liquidity.”
Just this week in a CNBC interview Jay Clayton, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission welcomed that “progress is being made” regarding bitcoin ETFs and its concerns about the functioning of the crypto markets.
He said there were still however substantive questions to address regarding price manipulation on unregulated exchanges and the need to implement professional level supervision and surveillance of crypto markets.
eToroX’s new service will probably be seen by the SEC as another development in the right direction.
eToroX promises the fees will be “highly competitive” with “professional level connectivity”, according to an emailed press release.
eToro on a roll
Israel-headquartered eToro has been busy of late.
In addition to the eToroX rollout in April and the launch of eight fiat-backed stablecoins at the same time, in March eToro launched its mainstream investment platform in the US and has also unveiled a model portfolio constructed around firms involved in the Facebook Libra project.
“The AlgoX Prime trading program aligns with eToro’s strategy of bridging the gap between blockchain and the traditional financial markets,” said Yoni Assia, eToro chief executive.
“The ability to trade using APIs will help steer institutional traders to connect to the crypto market, and to utilize eToro’s high-trading volume.”
eToro has also recently launched a 5G-focused portfolio aimed at its Asian customers in a sign of its growing ambitions of the company in both mainstream investing and crypto.
Commenting on the eToroX trading API announcement, Jasper Lee, managing director of eToro Asia, sees the launch as an important building block on the road to mass crypto adoption: “It is highly significant that we are launching AlgoX Prime API trading programme today in South East Asia. The market in this region is highly dynamic. People are very involved with crypto, and we believe that developments such as our new API program will greatly help facilitate mass adoption.”
The US remains the largest crypto market but Chinese investors of late have been putting money on offshore exchanges such as Huobi at an increasing rate, with Japan and South Korea trading still important but, especially in the case of South Korea, a shadow of its former self.