New York, NY · Founded 2022
The execution-only crypto ECN that refuses to trade against its own customers.
"Your Execution-Only Crypto Exchange"
Crossover Markets Group, Inc. — the firm behind CROSSx, the institution-only crypto ECN.
The Profile
Crypto exchanges tend to do everything at once. They hold your coins, broker your trades, run the matching engine, and - often enough - trade for their own account against the very flow that moves through them. For a retail user swapping a few tokens, that bundling is invisible. For a hedge fund routing size, it is a structural problem. Crossover Markets was built on a narrow, almost old-fashioned idea: a trading venue should match orders, and nothing else.
Founded in New York in 2022, Crossover Markets Group is the company behind CROSSx, one of the first execution-only cryptocurrency electronic communication networks - an ECN, in the language of traditional markets. The distinction is the whole business. CROSSx does not custody assets, does not offer brokerage, and does not take the other side of a client's trade. It connects institutional buyers and sellers, matches them quickly, and steps out of the way.
The people who built it are not crypto natives, and that is part of the point. Co-founder and CEO Brandon Mulvihill spent roughly 18 years in electronic execution, market making, clearing and prime brokerage, most recently as Managing Director and Global Head of FX Prime Brokerage at Jefferies, and earlier as an executive at FXCM. He is joined by CTO Vladislav Rysin, formerly of Credit Suisse FICC and the FX ECN FastMatch, and CCO Anthony Mazzarese, who ran distribution for Jefferies' FX prime brokerage business. Between them, the founding team has spent careers on exactly the market structure that crypto skipped over.
CROSSx is a quote-driven matching venue with what the company calls Smart Order Matching - custom interaction rules and intelligent routing layered on top of an engine that matches at sub-20 microsecond latency. It runs 24/7, supports both dark and lit liquidity pools, and connects over FIX API or a graphical interface. In plain terms: an institution can post or take liquidity anonymously, decide who it interacts with, and get filled at speeds the company argues are many multiples faster than a typical crypto exchange.
That speed is not vanity. In fragmented crypto markets, latency and information leakage translate directly into worse prices. By separating execution from the rest of the stack and running a fast, rules-based engine, CROSSx aims to lower trading costs and improve execution quality - the same pitch that ECNs made when they reshaped FX and equities two decades ago.
The venue is institution-only. Its participants are hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, market makers, brokers, banks and liquidity providers - not retail. That focus has produced real scale for a company of roughly 20 people: since launch, CROSSx has matched more than $50 billion in notional across 12 million trades and supports nearly 100 live participants. It is a reminder that in market infrastructure, headcount and volume are only loosely correlated.
Most institutional crypto venues run a central limit order book, or CLOB, and many bundle execution with custody, lending or a proprietary trading desk. Crossover's argument is that this design creates conflicts a serious institution should not have to accept. CROSSx replaces the CLOB with a quote-driven ECN model and strips the venue down to execution. The competitive set - Coinbase Institutional, Kraken, LMAX Digital, Cboe Digital and various OTC aggregators - each mix those functions differently. Crossover's differentiation is subtraction: fewer conflicts, less bundling, a neutral counterparty-free pipe.
In 2026 the company extended the model with CROSSx Disclosed, which lets an institution build a customized liquidity pool through direct relationships with more than 30 OTC market makers, then settle on a post-trade net basis through prime brokers including Ripple Prime and BitGo Prime. It adds advanced execution tools - iceberg orders, pegged orders, dark functionality - across roughly 200 symbols, at single-digit microsecond speeds. Michael Higgins, International CEO of Ripple Prime, described the integration as offering "operational flexibility and capital efficiency without increasing counterparty risk exposure." Market makers including B2C2, Flow Traders, Virtu Financial, Da Vinci Trading and Stelaxis supported the launch.
CROSSx launched in March 2023 backed by a $6.35 million seed round from an unusually strategic group - Flow Traders, Nomura's Laser Digital, Two Sigma, Wintermute Ventures, Gate.io, GMO Internet Group and a consortium of retail brokers. In March 2026, the company closed a $31 million Series B at a $200 million valuation, led by Tradeweb Markets, the Nasdaq-listed electronic-trading firm, with DRW Venture Capital, Ripple, Virtu Financial, Wintermute Ventures, XTX Markets and Illuminate Financial participating. When that many trading and market-infrastructure names put money into the same venue, they are not betting on a token - they are betting on plumbing. Proceeds are earmarked to enhance the technology stack, expand global operations and deepen institutional integrations.
Crossover sits at the convergence its name describes: the crossover between traditional market structure and digital assets. As U.S. crypto regulation clarifies and institutions edge further into the space, the demand is less for another exchange and more for the neutral, low-latency rails those institutions already trust in FX and equities. Crossover Markets built those rails first and is now scaling into a moment that appears to be arriving on schedule. Whether the ECN model becomes the default for institutional crypto is unsettled - but the volume, the cap table and the timing all point the same direction.
Under The Hood
Trade digital assets on an institution-only venue that never reveals your identity to the other side.
A sub-20 microsecond engine with throughput of millions of messages per second - built for size, not slippage.
Custom dark and lit pools plus Smart Order Matching rules let you decide how and with whom you interact.
Standard FIX API and a GUI mean institutional desks plug in with the tooling they already run.
CROSSx Disclosed builds pools from 30+ OTC market makers with iceberg and pegged orders across ~200 symbols.
Post-trade net settlement via Ripple Prime and BitGo Prime keeps capital efficient without new counterparty risk.
The Difference
Crossover's pitch is subtraction. Where a typical exchange bundles execution with custody, brokerage and a proprietary desk, CROSSx does one job - and does not compete with the people using it. The bars below sketch the contrast in conflict surface, not a benchmark.
Illustrative. Latency per company disclosures; conflict comparison is qualitative.
By The Numbers
Figures as reported at the March 2026 Series B.
The Cap Table
| Round | Amount | Date | Notable Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | $6.35M | Mar 2023 | Flow Traders, Laser Digital (Nomura), Two Sigma, Wintermute Ventures, Gate.io, GMO Internet Group |
| Series A | Undisclosed | 2024 | DRW Venture Capital |
| Series B | $31M | Mar 2026 | Tradeweb Markets (lead), Ripple, Virtu Financial, XTX Markets, DRW, Wintermute, Illuminate Financial |
The Story So Far
From a founding idea in 2022 to a $200 million valuation four years later, Crossover's arc tracks the institutionalization of crypto itself.
FX prime-brokerage veterans establish Crossover Markets Group to bring institutional market structure to crypto.
The execution-only ECN goes live in March, backed by a $6.35M seed round from Flow Traders, Two Sigma, Laser Digital and others.
DRW Venture Capital backs the firm as participant count and volume climb.
Crossover expands operations to the United States to meet institutional demand.
Tradeweb leads a $31M round at $200M; the disclosed-liquidity model launches and volume passes $50B.
Questions
It operates CROSSx, an execution-only cryptocurrency electronic communication network (ECN) that lets institutions match trades anonymously with ultra-low latency, without the venue custodying assets or trading against clients.
CROSSx unbundles execution from custody and brokerage and never takes the other side of a trade, removing conflicts of interest common on exchanges. It uses a quote-driven ECN model with smart order routing instead of a standard central limit order book.
It is institution-only - hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, market makers, brokers, banks and liquidity providers. Nearly 100 institutions have traded on the platform.
CROSSx has matched over $50 billion in notional across 12 million trades. Crossover raised a $31M Series B at a $200M valuation in March 2026, led by Tradeweb with Ripple, Virtu, XTX, DRW, Wintermute and Illuminate participating.
Co-founders include CEO Brandon Mulvihill (ex-Jefferies FX Prime Brokerage), CTO Vladislav Rysin (ex-Credit Suisse FICC and FastMatch) and CCO Anthony Mazzarese (ex-Jefferies FX Prime Brokerage distribution).