Who it’s for / Fintech apps and new entrants

What do I actually need in place before I can take a first trade?

Six things. We supply four. The two we cannot are the two that take longest, so the answer starts there rather than with a demo.

Prerequisites for a first trade

Who supplies what
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The sequence

Do it in this order and the platform work is the easy part.

The failure mode for new entrants is building the product first and discovering the permission question at month five. The permission determines the product, so it goes first.

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Routes to market

You probably do not need to be the exchange.

Most new entrants assume the DCM route and abandon the project on the capital number. Two of the four routes need no mandated capital at all, and the choice changes what you have to build.

Summarised from public CFTC registration categories. Not an endorsement, not legal advice, and to be verified with your own counsel.

Route
Capital
Elapsed
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The hard part

Without an existing audience, distribution is your whole problem.

We will say this before you sign rather than after: an operator with no book is competing for traders against venues doing tens of billions in notional. The technology is solvable. The demand is not, on the same timeline.

What growth can and cannot do ›

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Other segments

Same venue, different operators.
Who it’s for / Fintech apps and new entrants

What do I actually need in place before I can take a first trade?

Six things. We supply four. The two we cannot are the two that take longest, so the answer starts there rather than with a demo.

Prerequisites for a first trade

Who supplies what
A permission to operate
A licence, a registration, or a route through a licensed venue
You
A KYC and AML provider
Identity, sanctions and age verification, with a system of record
Either
A ledger and client money handling
Balances, reconciliation and segregation appropriate to your permission
Either
A matching engine and settlement
Order book, collateral, resolution and clearing
Polyvatic
Two-sided quotes on day one
Committed spread and size, or an empty book
Polyvatic
Traders who want the product
An audience, or a budget large enough to buy one
You
The sequence

Do it in this order and the platform work is the easy part.

The failure mode for new entrants is building the product first and discovering the permission question at month five. The permission determines the product, so it goes first.

Step 01 Month 0

Decide the permission

Your counsel picks the route. Everything downstream, including which categories you can list, follows from it.

Step 02 Month 1

Pick the category set

Narrow and defensible beats broad. The category set determines your settlement sources and your surveillance load.

Step 03 Month 1-2

Wire identity and money

KYC provider, ledger, and client money. This is the work that always takes longer than the estimate.

Step 04 Month 2-3

Build the surface

Hosted app or widgets to start. Building your own front end first is a common and expensive detour.

Step 05 Month 3

Agree quote coverage

Spread, size and hours per category, with the cold-start subsidy priced and approved before you open.

Routes to market

You probably do not need to be the exchange.

Most new entrants assume the DCM route and abandon the project on the capital number. Two of the four routes need no mandated capital at all, and the choice changes what you have to build.

Summarised from public CFTC registration categories. Not an endorsement, not legal advice, and to be verified with your own counsel.

Route
Capital
Elapsed
Technology service vendorUntested with regulators
None mandated
1 to 3 months
Introducing brokerVia a guaranteed FCM
$45,000 or none
3 to 6 months
FCMFutures commission merchant
$1m minimum
6 to 12 months
DCM23 core principles, DCO separate
$5m or more
12 to 24 months
The hard part

Without an existing audience, distribution is your whole problem.

We will say this before you sign rather than after: an operator with no book is competing for traders against venues doing tens of billions in notional. The technology is solvable. The demand is not, on the same timeline.

What growth can and cannot do ›

We will tell you not to launch

Limit 01

If the model only works at volumes your distribution cannot plausibly reach, we will say so in the scoping call. A dead venue is worse for us than a deal we did not sign.

Cold start is a funded budget

Limit 02

With no organic flow, the subsidy line is real money with a known ceiling. You approve it in advance and we report the draw against it weekly.

Where we are genuinely strong

Strength

A narrow category set, a defensible permission and a partner-led distribution plan. New entrants who win do it on focus, not breadth.

Sandbox credentials are available before contract.

Book the walkthrough and a solutions engineer takes your integration lead through the engine, the resolution policy and the commitment terms. One business day to reply.