Cryptocurrency exchange and brokerage ShortHop is now operating in seven additional U.S. states allowing its users to work with multiple trading platforms’ order books via a single window.
As industry news outlet Coindesk reported on Aug. 26, ShortHop is now open in Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Arizona and Montana. Previously, the Delaware-based service was available in California, Washington and Illinois.
One exchange to trade them all
Per the report, despite the fact that ShortHop’s parent company — technology provider Velocity Markets — was already registered as a money services business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the exchange had to apply for additional money transmitter licenses in each state where it intends to operate.
Notably, ShortHop is a “spot fill market” that allows its customers to trade digital assets across various order books — including its own — in one place. Velocity Markets CEO Jonathan Kelfer explained:
“You might find that when you go on Binance, the spot price for bitcoin is the quoted price. When you go on Gemini it’s the quoted price there as well. We’ll use that in aggregate to get the best price across the ecosystem. […] ShortHop is a spot market first, but we’re aggregating liquidity across the ecosystem.”
According to Kelfer, in addition to its own exchange, ShortHop “is currently plugged into a total of eight exchanges and OTC desks.”
Retail now, institutions later
Presently, ShortHop’s users can buy and trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Ripple XRP. The platform allows its users to freely “hop” between these assets to avoid multiple conversions on different exchanges.
According to Kelfer, currently the platform charges zero fees and even offers its new users $25 worth of BTC for signing up. He also noted that ShortHop plans to offer its plug-in service to various institutions in the future, adding:
“We’d rather do this than nickel-and-dime retail users who should have access to the same quality of infrastructure that large players do. That’s not to say we won’t layer on fees in the future.”
As Cointelegraph reported recently, crypto exchange Coinbase’s user-controlled Coinbase Wallet has enabled its clients to use decentralized apps on any desktop browser through the WalletLink service.
