Steve Cohen-Backed 24 Exchange Pulls The Plug On Spot Crypto Trading As Regulatory Pressure Intensifies

24 Exchange, a trading platform that secured $14 million in funding in late 2021, which included support from Point72 Ventures led by Steve Cohen, has decided to discontinue its spot cryptocurrency product.

This comes as global regulators intensify their scrutiny of cryptocurrencies.

The Bermuda-based exchange, which was founded in 2018 and commenced operations in 2019, initially enjoyed robust support for its crypto trading product.

However, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Dmitri Galinov told Bloomberg that there was a decline in interest and demand following the collapse of FTX FTT/USD and crypto-affiliated entities such as Signature Bank SBNY and Silvergate Capital Corp. SI.

While 24 Exchange has made the decision to discontinue its spot crypto product, it won't be doing the same for another key offering. Galinov stated, "The trading venue will still offer its crypto non-deliverable forward product to clients seeking to hedge their digital-asset exposure."

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Prior to this, 24 Exchange, which primarily caters to banking and other institutional clients, had sought approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offer round-the-clock trading in equities.

The exchange had intended to enable customers to trade equities in increments as small as one one-thousandth of a share.

“Anyone who wants to trade crypto 24/7 would also like to trade Apple or Microsoft 24/7.” However, the company’s plans met with delays, and according to Galinov, they "ran out of time."

24 Exchange now aims to resubmit its application to the SEC for 24/7 equities trading by the end of summer.

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