Aquis Technologies, the financial and regulatory technologies services arm of Aquis Exchange PLC (LON:AQX), has announced that it has been chosen by Archax, the institutional-grade crypto and security token exchange, to supply the upcoming market with trading technology, when it launches in the first half of 2019.
The company stated that Archax will take Aquis’ complete suite of exchange operations services and tools including the Aquis Matching Engine (AME), its Aquis Market Surveillance (AMS), as well as operations systems and assistance in the post trade environment.
Aquis Exchange PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM and is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority to operate a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF). The Aquis MTF is currently used by many of the world’s top brokers, banks and liquidity providers to trade stocks from 14 European markets. Aquis Technologies stated that its products, which are used by the Aquis MTF, are scalable, low latency and are proven to handle very high volumes.
Aquis said that most existing crypto trading venues have targeted the retail space and lack the systems, processes and interfaces that institutions look for. Archax has been designed with these professional firms in mind and using the proven platform that Aquis offers means it will be able to deliver a familiar, secure and performant environment for them.
Aquis will supply Archax with a high speed, high capacity matching engine, a surveillance solution, including a first-line surveillance service, as well as market operations and post trade tools and services. Both the matching engine and the surveillance system will be hosted by Aquis in the Equinix LD4 datacentre and will operate on a 24×7 basis.
The three year agreement comprises an upfront implementation fee and a recurring licence fee when the exchange launches, subject to its funding round planned for later this year. The agreement is in line with the Aquis Exchange’s stated strategy to license its technology to third parties.
Graham Rodford, Archax
Commenting on the agreement, Archax CEO Graham Rodford, said:
It was vital for us to work with an existing provider of cutting-edge, traditional exchange technology with a strong record of delivering products, systems and services to third parties. Having reviewed a large number of options, it was clear that Aquis was a perfect fit for us and the winner in terms of performance. The fact that so many market participants are already familiar with their technology was a key factor in us selecting them. We believe that using a regulated MTF operator to run our core matching engine, as well as leveraging Aquis’ market surveillance team, will also fast track our time to market.
David Lester, former Chief Strategy Officer of the London Stock Exchange Group and Advisor and Non-Executive Director at Archax, added:
For an institutional exchange to be successful, the choice of technology is key. I am delighted that Archax is choosing to partner with Aquis, a proven operator of technology for existing regulated, high-performance markets. I look forward to the rollout and the introduction of Archax services to the marketplace.
Alasdair Haynes, CEO of Aquis Exchange, said:
We have been approached by many firms wanting to use our technology in the crypto space. The Archax team, however, bring the extensive experience from traditional regulated markets that we believe is needed to launch a successful crypto exchange for institutional use and we and very pleased to be working with them.
This project will commence on completion of Archax’s current fundraising round, prior to its security token offering (STO) planned for later this year. Archax will initially have exclusive use of the Aquis Exchange technology in the digital asset space.