ErisX launches crypto spot market, raises another $20M in Series B round

ErisX, a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, has officially announced the launch of its spot market.

In its press release dated April 30, the company said that the launch of the spot market is the first part of its vision to create “a unified digital asset spot and regulated futures exchange.”

At launch, the spot market will support dollar trading pairs with bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), litecoin (LTC), and ethereum (ETH), as well as trading pairs of bitcoin with the other three cryptocurrencies, CoinDesk reported. ErisX reportedly said that a number of firms were interested to trade on its platform at launch.

“We took a disciplined and methodical approach to the launch of the ErisX spot market. As experienced market professionals we know that a launch such as this is a process, not a one-off event,” said Thomas Chippas, CEO of ErisX. “We are moving from an initial phase to a public launch, and will continue to work with our partners, investors, and regulators to expand access.”

Alongside the launch of the spot market, ErisX announced the closing of a third round of Series B investors, raising an additional $20 million. It had previously raised $27.5 million in the Series B round in December 2018. The total amount raised to date has not been disclosed yet.

New investors include Arc Light Securities, Castle Island Ventures, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Flow Traders, Tradestation and New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG). ErisX said that it has also received additional support from existing investors including Cboe Global Markets, CMT Digital, Consensys, CTC, DRW Venture Capital, ED&F Man Capital Markets, Nasdaq Ventures, Pantera Capital, Susquehanna International Group, and Virtu Financial.

ErisX further reiterated its plans to launch a regulated futures exchange and clearinghouse later this year, which is subject to regulatory approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to provide hedging and risk management tools for digital assets.

“These complementary offerings will enable trading of both spot and futures on a single infrastructure, an industry-first in the digital asset space, which creates collateral efficiency in ErisX’s fully funded model,” it said.