TD Ameritrade and a slew of Wall Street firms invest an undisclosed amount in cryptocurrency exchange ErisX, which plans to launch spot trading in Q2 2019
Brokerage giant TD Ameritrade, a slew of high-speed traders, and a long list of Wall Street firms are getting behind a brand new market …
Context & Ripple Effects
TD Ameritrade is not new to regulated crypto exposure: it opened client access to Cboe's Bitcoin futures back in December 2017, so backing ErisX extends that posture from trading someone else's contract to owning a piece of the venue itself. The investor list — high-speed traders alongside traditional Wall Street firms — signals that institutional interest in crypto is consolidating around exchange infrastructure rather than just products.
The bet also fits a broader brokerage land-grab: two months later ErisX closed a $27.5M Series B with Nasdaq Ventures, Fidelity Investments, Bitmain, ConsenSys, and Monex Group, while rival E*Trade was reported to be preparing direct Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for its own customers.
First-order effects
- ErisX gains capital and credibility from TD Ameritrade and established market participants as it builds toward its planned Q2 2019 spot-trading launch, positioning it against incumbent crypto exchanges with a regulated-market pedigree.
- TD Ameritrade deepens its crypto footprint beyond offering Cboe Bitcoin futures to clients, now holding equity in the underlying exchange rather than merely routing orders.
Second-order effects
- Brokerage peers face pressure to match the move — E*Trade's reported plans to offer Bitcoin and Ethereum directly show retail brokers treating crypto access as table stakes, which pushes exchanges like ErisX into competition for institutional-grade liquidity.
- High-frequency traders joining the round suggests market-making firms are preparing to supply liquidity to a new regulated venue, raising the bar on execution quality that any competing US crypto exchange must meet.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Wall Street incumbents stop buying crypto exposure through products and start building owned venues — a structure that reappears years later when Schwab, Citadel Securities, and Fidelity Digital Assets announce the EDX Markets exchange using MEMX technology.
- Regulated crypto market structure increasingly converges with equities market structure — same investor classes, same exchange playbook — leaving purely crypto-native venues to compete on regulation and institutional trust rather than novelty.
The trend: Traditional brokerages and market makers are shifting from offering third-party crypto products to investing in and operating their own regulated crypto exchanges.