The Company Behind Popular Bitcoin Wallet Launches World’s ‘Fastest Crypto Exchange’

Blockchain, provider of the leading Bitcoin wallet, has announced the launch of its own crypto exchange. Dubbed The PIT, the new platform is said to be “the fastest crypto exchange in the world.”

1/ The secret is finally out 🎉we’re launching The PIT, the fastest crypto exchange in the world (come find us at https://t.co/egT1Ca3BfU or @BlockchainPIT on Twitter and Instagram) pic.twitter.com/EObq2CmSgP

— Blockchain (@blockchain) July 30, 2019

Formerly known as Blockchain(.)info, Blockchain(.)com was founded in 2011 to initially serve as a Bitcoin block explorer. To date, the firm has been a provider for one of the most popular crypto wallets with over 40 million registered wallets. The company raised a total of $70 million from investors including British billionaire Richard Branson, Alphabet venture arm GV and early Spotify backer, Lakestar.

According to the announcement, The PIT is the result of a behind-the-scenes effort led by a team of former executives from the New York Stock Exchange, TD Ameritrade, Google and Goldman Sachs.

The exchange will be available in more than 200 countries, initially supporting 26 trading pairs. Customers will be reportedly able to link their bank account with an account at Blockchain.com and trade crypto against three major fiat currencies, including U.S. Dollar (USD), the Euro (EUR) and British pound (GBP).

The platform’s matching engine Mercury can execute buy or sell orders in “40 to 50 microseconds,” an “order of magnitude faster than other market players” like Coinbase and Binance, said Peter Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Blockchain.

Having enjoyed popularity with bitcoin enthusiasts — Blockchain claims to account for about 25% of daily activity on the bitcoin network — the company is hoping its exchange platform will help lure in the uninitiated.

“There’s a huge audience of people who have not yet placed their first bitcoin trade,” Nicole Sherrod, head of trading products at Blockchain, told CNBC. Sherrod previously led the active trading product team at online stock broker TD Ameritrade before joining Blockchain.

Sherrod said the new trading platform would give investors a degree of liquidity not seen in competitor exchanges.

“In volatile markets in particular, speed is of utmost importance,” she added. “I would not feel comfortable delivering a platform to retail investors that puts them in a position where they couldn’t get in and out of a trade with lightning-fast speed.”

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