(Bloomberg) -- Standard Chartered Plc and Virtu Financial Inc. are among large financial companies poised to join a new London-based crypto derivatives venue, as a market rally boosts the appeal of digital currencies.
Trading platform Global Futures and Options Ltd., known as GFO-X, said on Monday that it had also signed up ABN Amro Clearing and market maker IMC, and expects to launch in the first quarter of next year. GFO-X is backed by M&G Investments, the asset management arm of pensions giant M&G Plc.
GFO-X, which will handle trading in Bitcoin index futures and options, originally expected to be up and running by late 2023 but had to twice delay the launch. The crypto rally fueled by Donald Trump’s election to the White House prompted renewed interest from an array of financial firms to join the platform, Chief Executive Officer Arnab Sen said.
“There are huge tailwinds post the US election,” Sen said in an interview. “We had multiple firms reach out since then which previously would have had a cautious stand.”
Trading on GFO-X will be cleared by LCH SA, which is majority owned by the London Stock Exchange Group. LCH developed a new offering called LCH DigitalAssetsClear to cash-settle GFO-X derivatives trades.
Digital assets have been on a tear since Trump was re-elected last month and made several pro-crypto nominations to his incoming administration. Investors expect the new administration to pass crypto-friendly legislation, removing what many have regarded as an obstacle for large financial firms to expand further in the sector.
Bitcoin is up more than 40% since the election, reaching a record high of $103,800 last week.
“A new trading venue that has these major financial institutions involved is a lot of work to put together,” Sen said when asked about the delays. Once launched, GFO-X would become the UK’s first regulated and centrally cleared trading venue for crypto derivatives.
M&G Investments bought a stake in GFO-X a year ago as part of a $30 million funding round.
Other large financial institutions are also pushing deeper into crypto and its underlying technology. Intesa Sanpaolo SpA is expanding the remit of its digital assets desk to handle spot trades, Bloomberg News reported last month. BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, has amassed $58 billion in assets in its Bitcoin-backed exchange traded fund and is pushing to have its money-market digital coin more widely used as collateral for crypto derivatives trades.
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