Chicago Board of Trade building for a ProCoinNews article about EDX institutional crypto market infrastructure.

SBI Leads $76 Million Bet on EDX’s Institutional Market Stack

By Isaac • July 7, 2026 4:45 pm • Comments

Institutional crypto infrastructure just pulled in another large funding round.

EDX Markets announced a $76 million Series C round led by SBI Holdings, the Japanese financial group that has been expanding deeper into digital assets.

The deal centers on market plumbing instead of a new meme coin or retail trading app.

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That means trading, clearing, settlement, custody, risk controls, and the rails financial institutions use before they can offer crypto at scale.

EDX Markets said the funding will support expanded trading, clearing, and settlement capabilities, accelerated product development, and scaled global operations.

The company describes itself as a digital asset technology firm that combines an institution-only trading venue with a central clearinghouse. That structure is the heart of the story because EDX is trying to look more like traditional market infrastructure than a vertically integrated retail crypto exchange.

EDX said the raise was led by SBI Holdings. In the same release, the company pointed to SBI Group’s recently launched JPYSC, described as Japan’s first trust bank-backed yen stablecoin, and SBI’s handling of dollar-denominated stablecoins including RLUSD and USDC.

EDX also said it launched FlowConnect earlier this year and recently filed an OCC application to establish EDX Trust, a proposed national trust bank. Those two details show why the money is being framed around infrastructure rather than a single trading venue.

The release also keeps the customer base narrow. EDX says its products are available only to institutions in the U.S. and certain other jurisdictions, and the site says EDX does not onboard or accept retail customer deposits.

That restriction matters because the institutional lane has different needs. Banks, brokers, and asset managers want custody separation, risk controls, settlement procedures, surveillance, and compliance architecture before they can route meaningful digital-asset activity.

CoinDesk reported that EDX raised $76 million in a Series C round led by SBI Holdings to support product development and international growth.

The report said EDX serves institutional clients by separating trading from custody and settlement through a central clearinghouse. CoinDesk said the model is designed to reduce counterparty risk and mirrors traditional financial-market structure.

CoinDesk also noted EDX’s move beyond spot trading through FlowConnect, a crypto-as-a-service product that lets financial firms offer crypto trading to their customers. That broadens the story from exchange matching to distribution infrastructure.

The report also cited EDX’s April application for a U.S. national trust bank charter. If approved, EDX Trust would provide regulated custody, clearing, settlement, and risk management services for crypto clients.

The approval boundary is essential. An OCC application starts a regulatory review path.

EDX is trying to build toward that model, and the latest raise gives it more capital to pursue the infrastructure stack.

CoinDesk also tied EDX to earlier backers including Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab, Paradigm, and Sequoia Capital. That list helps explain why the company is watched as a market-structure name rather than a typical startup exchange.

Ledger Insights reported that EDX is backed by Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, and Virtu Financial.

Its July 7 report also said the new proceeds will support the expansion of EDX’s trading, clearing, and settlement capabilities and global operations. Ledger Insights focused heavily on what the investment says about SBI’s current digital-asset strategy.

The report noted that SBI recently agreed to acquire crypto exchange Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen, or about $289 million. It also said SBI Crypto plans to shut its bitcoin mining pool at the end of July.

Ledger Insights framed that sequence as a move away from producing the underlying asset and toward regulated trading and settlement infrastructure. That is why SBI’s role in the EDX round is more interesting than the dollar amount alone.

In the wider market, that shift tracks a bigger institutional trend. The firms with staying power are building rails around custody, settlement, liquidity, stablecoin access, and compliance instead of relying only on spot trading volume.

EDX FlowConnect shows how the company wants to distribute those rails through other firms.

The product page says FlowConnect lets businesses enable crypto trading for their customers using EDX’s institutional-grade platform. It includes deep liquidity, clearing, settlement, spot and perpetual trading, and stablecoin on- and off-ramp solutions.

The page also describes white-label crypto exchange tools, customizable trading pairs, leverage settings, margin parameters, subaccounts, and pricing options. That makes FlowConnect a product for firms that want crypto capabilities without building a full exchange stack themselves.

Risk controls are a major part of the pitch. EDX lists collateral and risk management infrastructure, market surveillance, a standardized rulebook, pre-trade checks, price bands, cancel-on-disconnect controls, margin calls, liquidations, and settlement accounts.

The page also repeats the institutional boundary. EDX says it is institution-only and does not onboard or accept deposits from retail customers, which keeps the product positioned as infrastructure for professional firms.

EDX Markets said in April that it filed an application with the OCC to establish EDX Trust, National Association.

The proposed national trust bank would provide regulated digital asset custody, trade clearing, settlement, and risk management services. EDX said the proposal targets structural risks in crypto markets where brokerage, exchange, and custody are often combined inside one platform.

The company said a separate OCC-regulated trust entity could improve transparency, reduce conflicts of interest, and strengthen market resilience. It also said EDX Trust would operate beside EDX Markets and EDXM International if approved.

That regulatory filing connects directly to the July funding round. EDX is raising money around a model where the exchange, clearing, settlement, and custody pieces become more institutionally legible.

For crypto, the signal is straightforward. Institutional adoption depends on the back office as much as the front-end trade button.

EDX’s new round says investors are still willing to fund that layer. The next test is whether the firm can turn a market-structure thesis into products banks and brokers actually use at scale.

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