New crypto options and futures exchange Thalex closes Series A funding round

Gibraltar, July 7, 2022 — Thalex, a trading platform offering stablecoin-settled crypto options and futures, announced it had closed its Series A funding round of 7.5 million euros ($7.64 million). Among the participants are Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Flow Traders, i Money Crypto, QCP Capital and Wintermute. These strategic investors will support the company’s ambition to enable the on-exchange trading of crypto derivatives at scale by removing friction, ensuring platform reliability and partnering with liquidity providers and major exchanges.

Key features of the Thalex trading platform include: 

• Linear Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) contracts with multi-collateral support for BTC, ETH, Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC)
• Trading fees are anchored on one-basis-point maker-and-taker fees and fee advantages for multi-leg options and futures strategies with requests for quotes (RFQs).
• Future rolls with dedicated order books
• RFQs for multi-leg options and futures strategies, in any size
• A market-maker scheme with competitive fee levels, market-maker protection and excellent connectivity to foster healthy competition among liquidity providers on a level playing field
• Portfolio-based margins offering capital efficiency for delta and vega offsetting positions and adequate requirements for wing risks.
• An efficient liquidation process involving automated delta-hedging to limit the market impact and liquidation auctions to enable an orderly reduction of complex risks

Thalex is partnering with Bitfinex and Bitstamp to enable their customers to access the full suite of Thalex derivatives from their own user interface. Positions on Thalex can be opened with collateral held with the partner exchange after an instant and free transfer to a dedicated Thalex margin account. The Bitfinex partnership is expected to be operational later this year.

Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of Bitfinex, said, “We are delighted to participate in this funding round with Thalex and see huge potential for the stablecoin-settled futures and options market.”

Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux, CEO of Bitstamp, said, “Thalex’s unique value proposition will enable Bitstamp to streamline our go-to market for derivatives and participate in the fast-growing crypto derivatives market. This investment marks the beginning of a close strategic partnership and plays an important role in Bitstamp’s corporate strategy.”

Michael Lie, head of digital assets trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Flow Traders, said, “Flow Traders is excited to support Thalex via our dedicated corporate venture capital unit, Flow Traders Capital. Thalex’s ambition of creating a scalable infrastructure that enables on-exchange trading in crypto derivatives is another step forward in making trading digital assets more accessible and efficient. We are looking forward to working with Thalex and building a long-term strategic partnership.”

Darius Sit, founder of QCP Capital, said, “Crypto options are one of the fastest-growing segments of the space and have proven to be robust through multiple market cycles. We believe the next phase of growth will be exponential. The Thalex team has built a platform combining the best practices from both crypto and traditional finance. We look forward to supporting Thalex in its efforts to expand the fast-growing crypto-options ecosystem.”

About Thalex

Thalex is a crypto-native derivatives exchange founded by a multi-faceted team of experts in traditional brokerage, crypto and market-making. The trading platform is now available for public testing at thalex.com and will go live soon. Thalex is in the process of being authorized as a regulated distributed ledger technology provider by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission.

To learn more about Thalex, please visit thalex.com.

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