Seed CX is closing its exchange business to focus on settlement infrastructure

Seed CX is shutting down its exchange business to focus on its settlement product, according to an announcement from the company. Tomorrow will be the final day of trading on the firm's order book.

The Chicago-based exchange began shifting its focus to settlement earlier this year as it failed to attract liquidity on par with other larger U.S. crypto-native exchanges. As The Block reported, while large exchanges like Coinbase regularly cleared over $200M in daily volume, Seed CX traded between $4M to $8M on a given trading day, according to sources. 

According to Seed CX's announcement, its settlement infrastructure business, which transfers a purchased asset to a buyer's account and cash to a seller's account, make up 95% of its revenue. Seed CX added that the firm is on track to be profitable in 2020.

Seed CX's business pivot began shortly after it started offering its settlement infrastructure as a service in addition to its exchange, allowing clients to utilize the firm's platform rather than building their own infrastructure and obtaining regulatory approval. However, as the announcement notes, some settlement clients felt offering an exchange product directly to customers was a conflict of interest.

With the focus on settlement, the firm also plans to announce an additional raise this month with investors including Bain Capital, according to the announcement.