“Exchange of exchanges” ShortHop increases US operations

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A new cryptocurrency exchange and brokerage is looking to make its presence known in the U.S.. ShortHop, “the exchange of exchanges,” has announced that it is open for business in seven additional states in the country after successfully operating in Illinois, California and Washington. The expansion comes as the exchange’s parent company, Velocity Markets, continues to secure the requisite financial licenses in each state.

According to Coindesk, ShortHop is now ready to accept customers in Arizona, Indiana, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey and Rhode Island. The company is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) as a money services entity and has applied for money transmitter licenses in different states. As those applications are approved, it brings more operations online.

ShortHop bills itself as a “spot fill market” that gives customers the ability to trade digital assets across different order books. As Velocity CEO Jonathan Kelfer tells it, “You might find that when you go on Binance, the spot price for bitcoin is the quoted price. When you go on Gemini it’s the quoted price there as well. We’ll use that in aggregate to get the best price across the ecosystem. […] ShortHop is a spot market first, but we’re aggregating liquidity across the ecosystem.” Kelfer adds that the exchange is tied into eight crypto exchanges and over-the-counter trading desks.

ShortHop provides support for Bitcoin Core (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP) and Stellar Lumens (XLM), but other currencies are expected to be added as the platform matures. Users can trade directly between the different assets, allowing them to avoid paying multiple conversion fees across different exchange platforms.

The exchange is not charging any fees as it looks to drum up more support. It is also offering a $25 bonus to new signups, paid in BTC, and hopes that it can offer its proprietary plug-in service to different institutions as it continues to build support. Kelfer explains, “We’d rather do this than nickel-and-dime retail users who should have access to the same quality of infrastructure that large players do. That’s not to say we won’t layer on fees in the future.”