Fix Trading Community Establishes Digital Currency Working Group

The Fix Trading Community, a global industry trade body, has announced the formation of a working group on digital currencies and blockchain technology.

The non-profit organization, whose membership includes some of the world’s largest banks, addresses business and regulatory issues affecting global multi-asset trading.

Fix's new team will be led by Sean Ristau, head of wealth management and derivatives at Raptor Trading Systems, Ron Quaranta, CEO of Digital Currency Labs LLC, and Ryan Pierce, director and technical architect for design and execution at CME Group.

Ristau said in a statement:

“As global digital currency and blockchain technology initiatives continue to grow, everyone is looking to the FIX trading community for guidance. The establishment of this working group is an important step in that process.”

The new working group will seek to identify, analyze and define use cases and integration points for digital currencies and distributed ledgers across capital markets needs, while recommending best practices for the implementation and use of technology across financial markets.

A few months after the announcement, Coinbase integrated Fix’s trading protocol — used by most major stock exchanges and investment banks — into its own bitcoin exchange.