Cryptocurrency startup Portofino Technologies has officially launched its high-frequency trading platform for digital assets, securing significant funding from venture capital firms in the process.
At its platform launch, Portofino has revealed that it has secured $50 million in equity financing from Valar Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Coatue. Although Portofino did not disclose how the funding will be used, the company has been active on the hiring front, having recruited more than 35 employees across five global locations.
Portofino was founded in 2021 by former Citadel Securities employees Alex Casimo and Leonard Lancia. The company is building a cryptocurrency-focused high-frequency trading technology, which is primarily used by hedge funds. Although the firm has just come out of stealth mode, it claims to have traded billions of dollars on centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges.
High-frequency trading, or HFT, refers to automated trading platforms typically used by large financial institutions to execute a large batch of orders at extremely high speeds.. These platforms rely on complex algorithms to analyze market trends and trading opportunities that can be executed in seconds.
Hedge funds are tasting a bit of honey.
A recent report by PwC reveals a third of the 89 surveyed traditional funds are investing in digital assets. https://t.co/Tm4uNEZo5V
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) June 9, 2022
Hedge funds are tasting some honey.
A recent PwC report reveals that a third of the 89 traditional funds surveyed invest in digital assets.
In the crypto realm, HFT strategies can now be executed on decentralized exchanges or DEXs. Unlike centralized exchanges, DEXs offer much faster trading speeds and new arbitrage opportunities. Portofino’s HFT technology aims to take advantage of these capabilities by increasing access to liquidity.
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have shown great interest in cryptocurrencies, but overall adoption has been slow due to various factors, including regulations and lack of infrastructure. As the head of cryptocurrency investment manager Apollo Capital told Cointelegraph:
“Nobody wants to be the first in something like that. Because if you are the first and things go wrong, then there is a career risk. That will at some point turn into the opposite.”
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