Institutional-focused crypto exchange operator EDX Markets has raised $76 million in a Series C funding round led by Japan’s SBI Holdings, the company announced Monday. The raise underlines sustained institutional demand for regulated market infrastructure even as broader venture activity in digital assets remains more subdued than it was during the 2021 boom.
EDX said it plans to use the proceeds to expand its spot trading, clearing, and settlement offerings, introduce new products, and increase its international presence. The exchange runs a US-based institutional spot venue and a Singapore-based perpetual futures platform designed for eligible non-US institutional clients.
Key takeaways
- EDX Markets secured $76 million in a Series C round led by SBI Holdings, supporting growth of its institutional spot, clearing, and settlement services.
- The company operates both a US institutional spot exchange and a Singapore perpetual futures venue, targeting different segments of global institutions.
- EDX’s funding momentum comes despite softer digital asset trading volumes and a still-cautious venture market versus 2021 levels.
- Backers already include major traditional finance names such as Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Virtu Financial, and Charles Schwab.
- Recent partnerships, including Ripple Prime integration, point to expanding access to EDX liquidity through institutional prime brokerage channels.
Why EDX’s Series C matters for institutions
Large funding rounds in crypto are often tightly linked to market participation and infrastructure needs. In EDX’s case, the focus is on the plumbing that institutional desks typically require—order execution, custody-adjacent operational workflows, and settlement and clearing processes—rather than consumer-facing products.
EDX’s latest round arrives during a period when crypto trading activity has cooled from its earlier highs and venture funding remains below the industry’s 2021 peak. Even so, the investment signal remains clear: capital continues to flow toward entities that can support institutional participation as regulation, market structure, and compliance practices evolve in the US.
EDX also emphasizes that it is expanding beyond a single offering. By pairing spot trading growth with clearing and settlement capability, the company is positioning itself as a more complete venue for institutions that need end-to-end execution and post-trade processing.
Building on existing investor support
EDX said the Series C follows previous investment from traditional financial firms, including Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Virtu Financial, and Charles Schwab. That roster is notable because it reflects ongoing interest from established market participants in crypto infrastructure, even when venture capital overall is less aggressive.
The company’s backers also highlight a broader shift in how institutions approach crypto. Instead of directly integrating into fragmented trading ecosystems, larger players often prefer venues designed around institutional workflows—liquidity access, operational readiness, and risk controls that can be more straightforward to integrate into existing systems.
Partnership-driven expansion and liquidity access
EDX has also expanded its institutional footprint over the past year through strategic integrations. In May, Ripple Prime integrated with EDX, enabling institutional clients to access EDX’s spot and perpetual futures liquidity via Ripple’s prime brokerage platform.
According to EDX’s announcement, the partnership also includes plans to support RLUSD as a settlement and collateral asset. The development matters because settlement and collateral treatment can be a decisive operational variable for institutions: it affects capital efficiency, transaction processing, and the overall complexity of moving value through market infrastructure.
EDX said it can process as much as $685 million in daily trading volume, suggesting that demand for institutional-grade execution venues remains intact even if overall market activity is less frenzied than in prior cycles.
For readers tracking institutional adoption, the key question is whether these integrations lead to sustained growth in client onboarding and deeper liquidity rather than only incremental access through partners. EDX’s strategy appears aimed at embedding itself into prime brokerage distribution pathways—an approach that can reduce friction for institutions that already rely on established counterparties for connectivity and compliance.
Institutional infrastructure still attracts capital
EDX’s Series C is part of a wider pattern: investors continue to fund companies building trading, payments, and settlement infrastructure despite a less bullish risk appetite than in 2021.
As one comparison point, Fortune reported that San Francisco-based Framework Ventures recently raised $400 million for a new fund targeting frontier technologies including blockchain networks and decentralized finance. Other infrastructure-adjacent funding also continued during the same general period referenced in the article, including:
- Fomo, a cross-chain trading-focused startup, raised $75 million at a $550 million valuation, according to Cointelegraph’s coverage.
- Trace Finance, which builds stablecoin-based cross-border payment and settlement infrastructure for businesses, raised $32 million to expand its platform, according to Cointelegraph’s coverage.
Taken together, these moves suggest that while crypto venture funding may be slower than the peak era, investors are still willing to place significant bets on infrastructure that can serve institutional requirements—especially where regulation and operational design reduce uncertainty for larger counterparties.
Looking ahead, investors should watch whether EDX’s expansion plans translate into measurable increases in new institutional clients, sustained trading volumes, and broader settlement/collateral support through partnerships like Ripple Prime. The funding itself is only one milestone; the next test is whether institutional demand continues to deepen enough to justify the scale-up of clearing, settlement, and product development.
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