New Ripple-Based Decentralized Exchange Launches in San Francisco

A new Ripple (XRP)-based decentralized crypto marketplace, DCEX, has now opened registration for retail and institutional accounts, according to a press release published July 30.

The new San Francisco-based platform runs on technology developed by blockchain firm AlphaPoint, and will initially offer 15 crypto-crypto trading pairs, all against Ripple as a base currency. These include Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), EOS (EOS), IOTA (MIOTA), and ZCash (ZEC), among others, with further altcoins to be listed in the future.

DCEX will also reportedly make all of the assets included in the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI) — which tracks the top ten “most liquid” crypto assets and presents itself as an “institutional benchmark” for the crypto market — available in one location for investors.

According to the press release, DCEX believes that using XRP as a base currency will allow for “high-speed transfers” that can help investors to better take advantage of “price inefficiencies” in their arbitrage among currency pairs on different exchanges.

The marketplace claims in the release that its network will facilitate “up to one million transactions per second,” and will also enable participants to connect to APIs to facilitate “high frequency” crypto trading strategies, as well as to margin trade.

DCEX, reportedly registered with FINCEN, is taking “initial steps” towards becoming a fully compliant and regulated operator under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulatory agencies, the press release notes.

As a Cointelegraph analysis outlined this spring, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are gaining traction in the cryptosphere, both on ideological grounds and due to perceptions that centralized platforms are more vulnerable to thefts, such as the industry record-breaking hack of $532 mln in NEM from Coincheck earlier this year.