ANALYSIS: One Trading hails client flexibility as key to European crypto venue

The chief executive of the Amsterdam-based exchange, who told FOW One Trading plans to launch the Mifid II trading venue in the first three months of 2025, pointed to the flexibility of its services being able to work with customers “within completely different contexts”.

“If we want to work with a Mifid broker, we can directly. If we want to go directly to retail customers we can. If we want to work with crypto asset service providers (CASPs) and virtual asset service providers (VASPS) and have a tied agent model where we are using our licence to leverage and support them in growing the business, we are also positioned to offer this,” said Joshua Barraclough (pictured) in an interview.

“Our set-up was designed with a clear goal: to be MiCAR-compliant from day one—a milestone we have successfully achieved. At the same time, we aim to elevate the capabilities of our venue partners by offering unparalleled versatility and a wide range of options, developed through our collaboration with diverse customers.”

Barraclough also said being granted an organised trading facility (OTF) licence by the Dutch financial market regulator in July, which One Trading at the time hailed as a “landmark” regulatory approval for European crypto derivatives trading, was instrumental in gearing the Mifid II venue to be ready for launch in the new year.

“One Trading has spent three years obtaining an OTF licence and building a robust product, with rigorous testing to ensure its reliability. We launched our spot market in January to provide a fully operational platform capable of being tested at scale,” said Barraclough.

“Unlike some derivatives venues launching without the experience to effectively onboard and support customers or manage infrastructure challenges, such as matching engine issues, we already have a well-established foundation. Our trading infrastructure is fully equipped for regulatory reporting and compliance checks, ensuring we operate the venue to the highest standards.

“Additionally, market-makers are already integrated and actively trading on our spot platform. For us, the focus now is on fine-tuning the remaining smaller elements to complete our offering.”

One Trading said securing funding from Standard Chartered’s fintech investment and ventures arm SC Ventures has helped its go-to-market plans for the MiFID II trading venue. The founder of One Trading also said its versatility has allowed the firm to prioritise different offerings across the continent as it looks to build liquidity across 2025 after the venue launches.

“From travelling around Europe and meeting various firms in different jurisdictions, we can identify markets where we want to be particularly active in work with other venues and help them grow their market share by leveraging our licence and products to support that,” said Barraclough, touting One Trading as the “only venue in Europe right now” that can support CASPs, VASPS and Mifid brokers in launching perpetual futures.

The One Trading founder and chief executive also pointed to partnering with institutions who want access to regulated perpetual futures trading and who historically have only had access to dated futures on a regulated venue.

“We see a lot of demand for this across various crypto derivatives products and believe we are well-positioned towards building a lot of taker volume. We have picked a couple of countries in Europe where the business we are building and values we stand for at One Trading, strongly resonate with the needs and expectations of their user base,” said Barraclough.

“We are fairly agnostic in approach; our goal is to have as many people trading on the platform as possible and become a real kind of utility for everyone, whether direct or via intermediaries.”

Crypto derivatives volumes in Europe are lagging the US. FOW Data shows Chicago-based CME Group’s Bitcoin futures volumes rose 14% year-over-year to 327,163 contracts in October, having launched in December 2017.

Germany's Eurex, meanwhile, traded just 198 lots of its US dollar-denominated FTSE Bitcoin Index futures and zero contracts in its euro-dominated future, down 98% from 9,964 lots and entirely from 327 contracts respectively in the same month last year, according to FOW Data. Eurex's Bitcoin offering was made available in April last year, meaning CME has had a significant headstart on the Frankfurt-based exchange.

Last month, FOW reported London Bitcoin market GFO-X is about to start testing with a view to launching in early 2025 and becoming the first British regulated and cleared crypto venue.

Since the US election victory of crypto-friendly Donald Trump over Kamala Harris earlier this month, the crypto industry has been bullish with the price of Bitcoin surging 37% to around $93,586 (£74,238) on Tuesday from $68,318 on November 5.