LMAX Digital, a regulated institutional crypto currency exchange and part of the LMAX Exchange Group, has announced it reached record trading volumes during the month of May. A record $5 billion was traded on LMAX Digital in the month, with a record high of over $400 million in daily spot volumes achieved on 12 May 2019. These monthly figures more than double April’svolumes which stood at $2.2 billion.
The surge in trading activity from institutional investors on LMAX Digital is the result of the return of volatility in the crypto currency markets and comes from a combination of proprietary trading firms and Asian brokers who have been increasing their interest in digital currencies over the past few months.
Jenna Wright, Head of LMAX Digital, commented:
There has been a marked shift to quality in the past month with institutional customers switching from Altcoins into Bitcoin and diverting more of their flow to trusted, regulated exchanges like LMAX Digital.
LMAX Digital is seeing a large amount of activity coming from Asia and especially Japan. Furthermore, there is a growing interest from European and US institutions in crypto currency. Wright added:
LMAXDigital currently has a rich pipeline of institutional clients and we have had to increase our on-boarding team in London and Gibraltar to cope with the unprecedented demand.
LMAX Digital launched in May 2018 and in just over 12 months completed more than six million trades, experiencing rapid growth and breaking-even in the fifth month of operations. LMAX Digital has becomeLMAX Exchange Group’s fastest-growing exchange and it now serves 190 institutional clients around the world. The exchange was launched in response to client demand and demonstrates the need among institutional market participants for a robust, efficient and trusted platform on which to trade digital currencies.
David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Exchange Group, said:
I couldn’t be more pleased with the growth ofLMAX Digital at this early stage. We believe crypto currencies will revolutionise capital markets in decades to come. The third wave of institutional demand is yet to commence in earnest and it might be some years before crypto currencies are readily accepted and traded by the world’s biggest institutions.
The activity we are seeing is generally from smaller, more agile tech-enabled institutions wishing to exchange risk with each other in larger size than they might see on retail platforms. Their expectations of low latency, efficient price discovery and deep liquidity are met by the LMAX Exchange Group technology stack which has been employed for LMAX Digital. LMAX Digital benefits from the $100m proprietary technology investment the Group has made in the past 7 years.
Being a regulated, trusted market operator and custodian is a core requirement of our clients and May’strading volumes are a testament to the level of trust clients feel when trading with our globally regulated Group.
We will be patient with this business and expect real success to come as distributed ledger technology and Digital assets pervade Institutional Capital markets. We believe LMAX Digital is unique in the space and the only credible choice for large Investors.
There will no doubt be bumps in the road as we engage in the second industrial revolution of our lifetime but I am certain LMAX Digital will have a large part to play as the crypto market moves into the mainstream. LMAX Digital represents only 2% of our Global revenues today but I see no reason why itcouldn’t surpass our core FX business in the next five years.