The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) announced that it has acquired a United States’ based cloud technology provider, Tora for $325 million. The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.
This acquisition shows the keen interest of the exchange in the cryptocurrency space as Tora offers software trading solutions for customers exposed to stocks, forex, fixed income securities, derivatives as well as for cryptocurrencies.
In justifying the acquisition, LSEG specifically outlined the importance stating, “The addition of digital assets to LSEG’s trading capabilities strengthens its presence in this rapidly expanding asset class at a time when institutional market participants are increasing exposure to crypto and other digital assets.”
What you should know
- Tora’s crypto trading solution is called Caspian. According to its whitepaper, Caspian aggregates prices, bid/ask information, orders, positions, accounts and executions from multiple crypto exchanges and other sources, presenting the information on a single platform.
- It then enables users to send order information to crypto exchanges individually, or to multiple exchanges all at once, using its Smart Order Router technology. The software, itself, is aimed at institutional clients and offers order execution, portfolio management, compliance, risk management and reporting tools.
- To note, Tora completed a Caspian (CSP) token sale in October that raised $19.5 million. CSP is built on the Ethereum blockchain and can be staked to earn discounts on the Caspian platform.
- The acquisition also offers LSEG the ability to better compete in Asia and North America where Tora has a presence with offices in Hong Kong, New York, Singapore and Tokyo among others.
What they are saying about the acquisition
Regarding the acquisition, head of trading & banking solutions at LSEG Dean Berry stated, “This transaction is an important extension of our global trading business. Acquiring Tora will enable LSEG to deliver critical “at trade” capabilities for the buy-side.”
Robert Dykes, CEO of Tora also had this to say, “I’m delighted that we will become part of LSEG. Tora has grown entirely organically since we formed in 2004. We are proud that all of our products have been built independently in-house since day one.”
The move is the latest in a growing trend of major financial institutions swooping on digital firms in the expectation they will upend trading processes in the sector. Although a major step towards offering crypto related services, this is not the LSEG first crypto venture investment it has made. LSEG bought a stake in London-based Nivaura in 2019, a digital platform which was behind the world’s first automated cryptocurrency-denominated bond issuance.
