FTX Unit Buys Stock-Clearing Platform Embed to Expand Equity Trading Infrastructure

FTX.US liked working with stock-clearing company Embed Financial Technologies so much, it bought the company.

FTX.US said Tuesday it was buying Embed as part the expansion of its equities division, FTX Stocks. No deal terms were provided in an announcement Tuesday.

• Embed provides white-label brokerage services and application programming interfaces (API) to broker-dealers and registered investment advisors.
• "Our teams have a shared vision and dedication to building from the ground up to democratize access to financial services," said Embed CEO Michael Giles in the announcement.
• FTX.US has been expanding its equity platform over the last year. The company said it will not charge commissions or trading fees in following the low-cost brokerage model that Robinhood (HOOD) rode to fame.
• The U.S. unit of crypto exchange FTX also said it won’t monetize traders’ orders by selling the flow to high-frequency traders, a controversial practice called payment-for-order flow for which Robinhood has been criticized.
• FTX US President Brett Harrison noted the company wants "to provide a comprehensive trading application that spans all asset classes. For equities and options trading this necessarily includes services such as clearing and custody, and our partnership with Embed showed us that they have built excellent technology and infrastructure to provide these services."
• FTX Stocks is currently available for select customers in private beta, and will be available to all domestic customers of FTX US later this summer, FTX said in its statement. The deal still requires regulatory approval.