Our experts tell us what we need to know about the new EDX exchange for institutional investors with support from Fidelity and Charles Schwab

A new crypto exchange, EDX, started operating in the U.S. It is backed by such well-known players in the market of traditional finance as Citadel Securities, Fidelity and Charles Schwab. This development could change the digital asset landscape amid increased U.S. attention to the sector.

According to the press release, EDX was launched to “meet the needs of the world’s largest and most advanced financial institutions.” And many of which are still interested in cryptocurrencies. But they are skeptical of existing platforms, also because of the regulatory uncertainty they now find themselves in. The launch of the site coincided with a surge in Bitcoin. It was just after news of an application for a Bitcoin ETF by BlackRock.

The EDX Markets exchange for institutional investors only was first announced in September 2022. In addition to Bitcoin, the exchange allows trading in three other cryptocurrencies – Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). None of them were equated with securities in the sensational lawsuits from the SEC against major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase.

Unlike existing crypto platforms, EDX offers a so-called non-custodial model. And that means it won’t store customers’ digital assets during trading. Instead, EDX works with a third-party custodian. According to EDX Markets CEO Jamil Nazarali, the expectation of regulators. That crypto exchanges should be separated from broker-dealer functions, similar to the structure of traditional financial markets, will create opportunities for EDX.

Major Investors

The first capital to develop the exchange came from venture capital firms Paradigm, Sequoia Capital and Virtu Financial. By the time of launch, EDX had raised additional funding from new investors, including Miami International Holdings, GTS, GSR Markets and HRT Technology. At the end of the year, the company plans to launch its own EDX Clearing service for trades on the exchange.

The Sequoia portfolio also includes other major cryptoservices. The company has invested, for example, in projects such as Filecoiln and LayerZero. Paradigm focuses exclusively on the crypto market and has supported dozens of blockchain startups, including Uniswap, OpenSea, Synthetix, Starkware, Phantom, Optimism, dYdX, Blur and others.

The traditional market enters the cryptocurrency market

EDX customers will still be able to trade the four cryptocurrencies almost around the clock. But the site will share the functions of broker, dealer and exchange.

Many potential crypto investors are still interested in this area. But they are wary of the inherent volatility of the crypto market. Taking the example of the traditional stock market. And now EDX wants to attract these risk-averse customers. The exchange is aimed primarily at large investors. As well as those investors who are put off by the regulatory uncertainty and instability of the crypto industry.

Instead of retail investors trading cryptocurrencies directly through the EDX platform. And as is the case with other exchanges, they will interact with intermediaries. A similar approach is taken, for example, in stock trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The reliability of such intermediaries is also an argument for potential clients.

“There’s no way someone trading through a reliable intermediary will lose a hard drive with $200 million worth of cryptocurrency keys and then spend years looking for it in a landfill,” says Jamila Nazarali, CEO of EDX Markets. And recalling that such cases did occur.

Our experts point out that the site will also provide clients with access to more favorable prices through transactions with special quotes for retail-only quotes. Because institutional traders often buy the asset in large quantities. Their transactions often lead to an increase in the price of such an asset, which leads to losses for market makers. To minimize this, the platforms can set inflated commissions. And which will be strongly felt for retail traders who trade in much smaller volumes. By isolating retail trading, EDX can offer clients better prices for small trades.

Our Crypto Upvotes experts summed up results of May on the crypto market. And gave their forecasts for leading cryptocurrencies for the nearest future

May was the first month this year that Bitcoin closed with a loss in price. On January 1, BTC was trading around $16.5 thousand, on February 1 – $23.13 thousand, on March 1 – $23.15 thousand, on April 1 Bitcoin rate reached $28.5 thousand, and on May 1 – $29.3 thousand. By the last day of spring the price of BTC went down to $27.7 thousand.

But despite the BTC price decrease by 5.5% in May, it has grown by 67% since the beginning of the year. The total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency decreased by 3.3% in May, but has increased by 41% since the beginning of the year.

Last month on the cryptocurrency market went mainly in the decline in the prices of leading assets

The growth was observed only in certain projects, such as Ripple. And it was primarily due to internal fundamental reasons.

Otherwise, the correction in the cryptocurrency market within the uptrend of the beginning of the year continues. And to say that the market has found the bottom and will go into active growth, it is not necessary yet, says our expert.

May has not been very good for BTC so far this year, with almost 6% fall of the exchange rate. Despite this, we have not seen a strong collapse. For example, as it was in May of the previous few years. Over the past month, BTC and other major cryptocurrencies by market capitalization were in consolidation phase.

On May 25 the price of Bitcoin updated minimum of two months, sinking to the point of $25.8 thousand. But by the end of May BTC got out of this pit, and steadily crossed the point of $27 thousand.

This decline can be attributed to market instability caused by problems in the U.S. banking sector, says our expert. Recession inevitably leads to higher borrowing costs for individuals and companies. And investments are losing yields. So investors tend to invest in conservative instruments. Cryptocurrency traditionally fades into the background at this time.

The U.S. Treasury Department is actively working to reduce inflation. And if it succeeds, then the cryptocurrency segment of the market will go back to growth

Our experts say that even with the current Fed rate, Bitcoin will be able to stop the decline. And even begin to rise in price, albeit slowly. The same will happen to Ethereum and other popular cryptocurrencies.

The most important key events for the crypto market in June. These are reports on the U.S. business activity, inflation and unemployment index, which are published at the beginning of the month. Then after these reports, on June 14, there will be a Fed meeting on the interest rate. And the change of which could very strongly influence the rate of BTC and altcoins.

In case of good economic reports we may expect that the current price level will be kept. In this case, it will be a positive signal for the crypto market. And that will push the BTC price up, to the current resistance level of $31,000, and possibly higher.

Historically, June is considered a low month for Bitcoin. And for the past three years, its exchange rate has fallen in June, our experts remind us.

In May, Bitcoin was supposed to show BTC down to the $25k level. However, it fell slightly short of that target. At the same time, as in the case with Bitcoin, our experts also expect other assets to decline in prices in June.

For example, the correction target for Ethereum is at $1.6k. And other assets with high market capitalization, such as BNB, XRP, ADA, MATIC may also decrease by 5-15% in the first month of summer, our expert thinks.

As for the fundamental aspects, the attention of market participants remains focused on macroeconomics in the USA. Because the pause in rate hike at the June FED meeting is already built into the current prices. But in case of divergence with market expectations, cryptocurrency may decline synchronously with stock assets.

Important events in June among other top 30 cryptocurrencies

Among all cryptocurrency assets from the top 30, Litecoin (LTC) may be stronger than the market. That’s because the LTC network will be halving in August. It is historically bullish on the cryptocurrency exchange price. Also LTC can become one of the leaders of the subsequent market growth. And even if it won’t show good growth in June.

Our experts Crypto Upvotes note that in June several major unlocks of cryptocurrencies are expected. For example such as 1inch Network (1INCH) here will be released 16.6% of the total supply. And Blur here will unlock 6.62% of the total supply. Our expert warned that after unlocks there is usually a fall in asset prices.

Our experts talked about trends in the cryptocurrency market. And pointed out several altcoins worth paying attention to

Start of 2023 was positive not only for Bitcoin supporters, but also for almost the entire cryptocurrency market. The leading coin has risen in price by 36 % since the beginning of January. And some alternative coins rose in price by tens of percent.

However, not all assets linger at their peak values after significant growth. Often tokens both reach new ATH and fall off.

Our experts told us what affects altcoin rates. And which coins look promising at the moment. And also what risks an investor who wants to invest in cryptocurrencies may face.

Promising altcoins

Cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP) and Monero (XMR) have the best long-term growth prospects among altcoins. At the moment, it is worth investing only in those assets that can grow in value over the long term.

Of altcoins worth considering for purchase, tokens related to artificial intelligence (AI) may be worth considering. He noted that the trigger news for this area was a statement from Bill Gates. Who said that AI is “a really big deal” and that AI projects are revolutionary.

Another trigger for the increased attention to tokens related to AI. Our expert pointed to a post by Elon Musk. The billionaire wrote on Twitter that 2023 will be the year of AI. However, such statements are partly provoked by the emergence of ChatGPT neural network. Although it does not meet the criteria of general artificial intelligence, it has created a lot of hype in a market.

In the opinion of our expert, it is worth looking at Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) and Fetch (FET) tokens. However, FET is already trading at local highs. And in order to enter it will be necessary to wait for its correction first. Which is likely to happen in February, our specialist warned.

Ocean Protocol is a data trading platform. Including those used in the work with artificial intelligence. The main goal of the Ocean network is to create a global data supply chain for AI. The OCEAN Protocol token rose 125% in a month, from $0.16 to $0.36. The current price is 81% below the all-time high of $1.93 shown in April 2021.

Fetch is a project to build a decentralized “economic Internet” infrastructure based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. The goal of the project is to optimize the use of resources, to automate processes. As well as the development of algorithms for collective learning of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The FET token went from $0.095 to $0.28 in a month, up 194%.

Risky investments

Because there are no fundamental prerequisites for a long-term bullish cycle in crypto market yet. The current growth of altcoins is accompanied by high volatility. Our expert noted that this is the reason for their recent growth. We should expect the same significant correction in the next couple of weeks.

At the same time, the expert reminded that altcoins always have risks – it is even more risky asset than Bitcoin. When the market is nervous because of macro signals from regulators. The first thing investors do is to sell such excessively risky assets.