Ex-Morgan Stanley developers launch new crypto derivatives platform

Eight former core developers from financial services firm Morgan Stanley have recently launched a new derivatives trading platform in Singapore. According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph, the developers state that the platform, dubbed Phemex, is ten times faster than traditional crypto trading platforms. The platform will grant 100x leverage to retail and institutional investors in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP) perpetual contracts. 

The contracts will reportedly be backed by traditional financial products like stock indexes, interest rates, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, and metals and energy. Phemex co-founder Jack Tao said:

We are the first exchange to truly bring Wall Street level sophistication to the worldwide crypto derivatives markets. Our matching engine, trading engine, and risk engine were six months in the making, putting the platform technically on par with Nasdaq.

Tao stated in a recent interview with Cointelegraph that the platform was planning to add options trading soon. Tao has worked as an executive at Morgan Stanley for 11 years. He formed a team of more than 30 senior developers to launch Phemex. Tao said: 

We’re not just providing the functionality for trading. As executives from Morgan Stanley, we know what kind of ways, what kind of direction, or what kind of architecture can support high-frequency trading, stability, and low latency. This is where Phemex excels — our expertise allows us to compete with and outperform existing platforms.

Tao reported that the Phemex has witnessed a volume of around 1000 BTC per day on BTC/USD contracts since its launch on November 25. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore's central bank and financial regulator, intends to add crypto derivatives trading in its domain.