Digital assets are no longer peripheral to finance, they are becoming core infrastructure. As digital assets become increasingly mainstream, we're seeing something interesting happen: trading firms, fintechs, and financial institutions all want to offer regulated crypto derivatives and margin trading, but almost none of them want to build an exchange.

They shouldn't have to.

The Infrastructure Question

Running a regulated trading venue is a specialised discipline. You need a matching engine that can handle institutional volume, real-time risk controls that hold up when markets turn volatile, and governance that satisfies regulators. Most organisations recognise this isn't their core business. They want to serve their clients with differentiated products, not spend years building market infrastructure from scratch.

If every firm builds its own trading environment, liquidity becomes fragmented across dozens of small order books. That fragmentation hurts everyone - depth becomes inconsistent, spreads widen and clients receive a poor trading experience wherever they trade.

Pooling liquidity creates a positive flywheel. Consolidated order books concentrate volume, improve execution quality and support tighter pricing. As participation increases, the benefits multiply. More liquidity attracts flow, lowering costs and enhancing market efficiency.

Turning isolated liquidity islands into a unified market benefits everyone. Execution improves, spreads tighten and the market becomes more resilient as participation grows.

Exchange as a Service solves this cleanly. Platforms integrate with an existing, regulated venue and deliver the full product suite through their own interface. They keep control of the client relationships and user experience while the exchange handles the regulatory complexity and market operations.

At One Trading, we've built a fully regulated European exchange that supports both crypto and equity perpetual futures. Our partners offer these products directly within their systems while we operate the underlying infrastructure.

That infrastructure is built to scale under pressure. Enterprise clients need systems that support millions of users, handle heavy trading activity, and remain reliable during market stress. Our API architecture supports up to one billion accounts and streams full order book data directly to client platforms, with flexible pricing and margin logic applied per client for precise risk management.

They focus on their clients, we focus on running the exchange.

Why This Model Works

Financial infrastructure has evolved toward specialisation over the past decade. Payment processing, custody and clearing are increasingly provided by regulated infrastructure players rather than rebuilt by every firm entering the market.

Digital assets are following the same pattern, but faster.

The compliance obligations under MiFID II and MiCAR are demanding. Derivatives and margin trading require capital, robust processes, and continuous regulatory oversight. Most platforms recognise they don't want to operate regulated market infrastructure, but they do need to offer regulated products.

The platforms succeeding in this environment aren't trying to build everything in house. They integrate with purpose built venues that already hold the necessary permissions and governance, compressing time to market from years to months while materially reducing operational and compliance risk.

Three Integration Models

Organisations differ in their licensing structures, client setups, and commercial strategies. We support three pathways, providing flexibility to suit different business models.

The tied agent model lets partners distribute regulated products without carrying the full regulatory load. Under MiFID II, organisations that do not hold their own MiFID II license can become tied agents, enabling them to offer our crypto and equity perpetuals to eligible clients while we function as the regulated marketplace handling compliance and market operations.

The prime broker model suits platforms that want to intermediate client activity or centralise account management. Partners manage collateral and client balances while accessing our market infrastructure and order book.

The split relationship model is suited to organisations that need to separate onboarding and execution while keeping the client experience seamless. It is often the most appropriate route for MiFID II-regulated brokers and banks that want clients held in a regulated environment, without shifting the primary interface or relationship. The broker / bank manages the front end and ongoing client relationship, while clients are onboarded into One Trading in the background. Orders are submitted through the broker’s interface but executed by One Trading, with funding handled through the broker’s interface and assets transferred automatically into the appropriate collateral account.

Selecting an Infrastructure Partner

As more platforms explore these models, the choice of partner becomes a strategic decision.

Regulatory Substance. Look for established supervisory relationships and transparent governance. Regulatory shortcuts increase long term risk.

Performance Under Stress. Your connectivity becomes critical infrastructure. It needs to perform reliably when markets are volatile and trading volumes surge.

Operational Clarity. You should understand exactly how the venue manages risk, handles edge cases, and escalates issues. Transparency in operations builds trust when problems inevitably arise.

This isn't a vendor relationship. It's infrastructure that will underpin your business for years to come.

Looking Forward

We're entering a different phase of institutional digital asset adoption, one defined less by speculation and more by infrastructure quality.

Platforms want to move quickly, but they also need regulatory certainty. They want to differentiate their offering without rebuilding proven systems. They want control over the client experience while recognising that operating a regulated market environment requires specialised expertise.

Exchange as a Service addresses these requirements through a single integration. If you're evaluating how to expand into regulated derivatives, the infrastructure question deserves serious consideration. Building in-house looks appealing until you account for the actual cost in time, capital, and organisational focus.

At One Trading, we've built a direct path to offering fully regulated perpetual futures. One integration, clear regulatory oversight, and infrastructure designed for platforms to scale.

Contact

To find out more, please contact David Todd on david.todd@onetrading.com