Bittrex Inc. takes controlling strategic stake in Seed opening new trading opportunities for Institutional Crypto Trading

CHICAGO, Dec. 20, 2017 -- Seed CX Ltd (“Seed”) today announced a strategic investment by Bittrex Inc., a US-based cryptocurrency trading platform. Seed is currently onboarding institutional participants and will launch spot and derivative crypto trading in Q1 2018. Bittrex is one of the largest crypto trading venues in the world, with over $3 billion notional traded on a daily basis and over 2 million customers. Seed operates a swap execution facility, Seed SEF, registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Edward Woodford, CEO of Seed commented, “Seed uniquely offers spot and derivative contracts that are both cash settled and physically settled. We have the ability to offer a large number of trading pairs, including 19 different fiat currencies and over 200 types of crypto.”

Seed is focused on the institutional trading market, only accepting traders who qualify as eligible contract participants under the Commodity Exchange Act. “The market has been validated, with a daily trading volume of over $30 billion that is growing every day,” said Mr. Woodford. “We are currently seeing the birth of the institutional crypto derivatives market where there is considerable attention from politicians, regulators, institutions, skeptics who want to short, and long term bulls who are true believers. We aim to expand this institutional access and continue the discussion.”

Seed offers unique tools for institutions to trade on margin on a secure and stable trading venue. Seed has over 30 automated trade surveillance alerts, with the functionality to ‘replay’ trading activity, which will allow it to ensure the legitimacy of its market. Mr. Woodford noted, “Seed's platform was built for professional traders in an industry where standards exist: FIX protocol, colocation, market surveillance, redundancy, and uptime. The current crypto trading eco-system suffers from fundamental issues including the lack of basic controls and redundancy, which leads to frequent flash crashes and system downtime. Seed was built to change this.”

Seed is leveraging its settlement banking relationships and Bittrex’s wallet infrastructure to offer margined products as well as settlement mechanisms for physical and financial products. Seed also offers secure custody of cryptocurrency and fiat assets, with strict controls on withdrawals, deposits, limits and authentication. Through Seed SEF, Seed also intends to offer forwards and options, subject to review by the CFTC. These features uniquely position Seed in the crypto currency market and differentiate Seed from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and CBOE both of which have recently announced Bitcoin futures contracts. Mr. Woodford commented, “As the lens of institutional traders focuses on cryptos through futures, investors will want to trade a wider number of crypto pairs, as well as obtain both physical and spot exposure. If there was ever a commodity to settle physically, it is cryptocurrency.”

With the close of the investment, Seed’s Board is now comprised of Seed’s co-founders Edward Woodford and Brian Liston as well as Bittrex’s CEO Bill Shihara. Mr. Shihara is an expert on cryptography and blockchain.

About Seed CX

Seed is a Chicago-based financial platform that offers spot and derivative trading as well as a settlement platform for institutional crypto trading. Seed offers derivatives through its CFTC regulated swap execution facility (“SEF”).

Seed is currently onboarding customers and will launch trading in Q1 2018. Seed will initially offer spot and forward trading on the most established crypto and fiat pairs. Seed plans to then launch traditional vanilla options pending regulatory approval and broaden the currency pairs on offer.

Both Seed’s spot market and SEF are founded on creating a transparent and legitimate market for cryptocurrencies. Seed’s goal is to bring buyers and sellers together in a fair and stable market place with low cost, low slippage, reasonable margin, and high liquidity. 

For more information, please visit www.seedcx.com 

Media Contact

Edward Woodford, CEO
[email protected]

About Bittrex

Bittrex provides over 2 million customers a world class experience to buy and sell cutting-edge cryptocurrencies and digital tokens. Based in the USA, Bittrex is the go-to spot for traders who demand efficient trade execution, stable wallets, and industry-best security practices. Bittrex’s firm dedication to being legally compliant and fully regulated means that they were one of the first companies to apply for New York’s BitLicense, allowing them to proudly serve New York person and entities. Bittrex supports over 275 cryptocurrencies and trades over $3 billion in daily notional.