M&G-supported digita assets firm GFO-X has debuted in London with its first cleared trade, entering the crypto derivatives market.

A new crypto trading platform aimed at big financial firms, GFO-X, has just launched in London, kicking off its services this week with backing from M&G Investments and its first trade cleared through the London Stock Exchange Group’s new clearing house, LCH DigitalAssetClear, Bloomberg has learned.

Per the report, market makers Virtu Financial and IMC were the first to trade on the venue, which focuses on Bitcoin index futures and options.

Authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority, GFO-X had planned to go live in late 2023 but faced some delays, though now, with crypto markets heating up again, the timing seems right. GFO-X CEO Arnab Sen said in a commentary for Bloomberg that demand for crypto is “growing and growing right now but the issue is that, especially at an institutional level, onboarding takes longer than people think.”

The launch lines up with a broader trend as traditional finance is diving deeper into the crypto landscape. Last week, U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase announced it’s buying Deribit — the world’s biggest exchange for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) options — for $2.9 billion in a major step for the U.S. exchange into the booming crypto derivatives space.

London-based M&G Investments led GFO-X’s Series B funding round in 2024, contributing to a $30 million raise that GFO-X said would support the growth of regulated digital assets and help build a global hub for trading and clearing digital asset derivatives; as part of the deal, M&G also joined the board of GFO-X Holdings.