Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) – Matrix Exchange Ltd. has received a license, known as Financial Services Permission (FSP), to operate a regulated virtual asset Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) and custody platform that will serve customers from around the global. The FSP issued by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in the UAE allows Matrix Exchange Ltd. to serve retail customers, trading firms, and institutions from the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, among others.
Matrix Exchange Ltd. will provide customers with a robust trading platform purpose-built for virtual assets, and with secured and insured best-in-class cold storage services. Matrix Exchange initial products will consist of BTC, BCH, LTE, and ETH, all paired with USD. With a 40+ person technical, operational, and regulatory team already in place, Matrix Exchange is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2020.
“Abu Dhabi’s history as a global trading hub makes it an ideal location for a regulated, licensed virtual asset MTF that enables us to serve markets from around the world. With a license from the forward-looking FSRA, Matrix Exchange Ltd. is poised to fulfill a current white space and meet the demand from markets that until now have been limited to unregulated regional exchanges,” said James Wo, Chair of Matrix Exchange Ltd. and Founder of Digital Financial Group.
With its license, Matrix Exchange dissolves regional barriers and gives retail and institutional customers from around the world access to one regulated platform. This will create an accessible and a more efficient market and overcome common challenges faced by the industry. Notably, Matrix Exchange Ltd. will allow customers to convert fiat to virtual asset and settle trades in USD, an attribute that is extremely rare among virtual asset trading venues. The Matrix Exchange fiat channel eliminates friction and makes investments and trading available to millions of customers, maximizing adoption and propelling growth.
Matrix Exchange Ltd. will meet growing demand in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Region, a market ready for virtual assets investment and provide key infrastructure for growth. The GCC leads the Middle East in internet access and adoption of digital payments and has seen a 400% increase in alternative finance investments from 2013-2016, according to Global Findex. With initial investment from Digital Finance Group, a leading blockchain and virtual asset investment firm, Matrix Exchange will be the leader in the growth of global virtual asset trading.
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About Digital Finance Group
Digital Finance Group (DFG) is a global blockchain and virtual asset investment firm. Founded in 2015, the firm has offices in San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi and manages investments in excess of $550M AUM. DFG’s portfolio includes an actively-managed trading fund which has seen returns of more than 400% over the last five years. DFG manages a venture fund with equity holdings in a number of leading blockchain companies, including LedgerX, Bloq, Circle, and Ripio among others. Successful exits have included Brave and Centre, where DFG was the lead investor to create and launch USDC.
DFG also led the launch of several key projects, including AToken the third largest wallet service in Asia; and Matrix Exchange. It has also supported Ethereum Classic Labs, which runs an accelerator that has invested in up to 40 blockchain projects over the last two years; and has a team of developers who manage the Ethereum Classic Protocol, one of the world’s major public blockchains. For more information, please visit: dfg.group and www.etclabs.org
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