On Tuesday, the London Stock Exchange Group, or LSEG, announced the acquisition of U.S.-based cloud technology provider Tora for $325 million; the deal is expected to close in the second half of the year. Tora offers software trading solutions for customers exposed to stocks, forex, fixed income securities, derivatives and cryptocurrencies. In justifying the acquisition, LSEG specifically outlined the importance of the latter:
"The addition of digital assets to LSEG's trading capabilities strengthens its presence in this rapidly expanding asset class at a time when institutional market participants are increasing exposure to crypto and other digital assets."
Tora's crypto trading solution is called Caspian. According to its whitepaper, Caspian "aggregates prices, bid/ask information, orders, positions, accounts and executions from multiple crypto exchanges and other sources, presenting the information on a single platform." It then enables users to send order information to crypto exchanges individually, or to multiple exchanges all at once, using its Smart Order Router technology. The software, itself, is aimed at institutional clients and offers order execution, portfolio management, compliance, risk management and reporting tools.
In addition, the firm completed a Caspian (CSP) token sale in October that raised $19.5 million. CSP is built on Ethereum (ETH) and can be staked to earn discounts on the Caspian platform.
Regarding the acquisition, head of trading & banking solutions at LSEG Dean Berry said: "This transaction is an important extension of our global trading business. Acquiring Tora will enable LSEG to deliver critical "at trade" capabilities for the buy-side." Meanwhile, Robert Dykes, chief executive officer at Tora, added: "I'm delighted that we will become part of LSEG. Tora has grown entirely organically since we formed in 2004. We are proud that all of our products have been built independently in-house since day one."