Crypto.com Exchange has completed a major upgrade to its trading infrastructure as it seeks to make inroads into the lucrative Asian market. The Hong Kong-headquartered company, whose crypto debit card is used throughout the region, has beefed up its exchange which launched in November, resulting in a claimed 10x performance improvement.

Among the raft of improvements to have been implemented in Crypto.com Exchange are:

• Better matching engine and order management system
• Unified REST and Websocket API, making it easier to accommodate high frequency trading
• Improved architecture, resulting in lower latency and paving the way for high leveraged margin trading

Crypto.com Ups Its Exchange Game

Crypto.com has come a long way from its beginning as an early crypto debit card company. Its original MCO Visa card has been complemented by a range of products that simplify the process of swapping between fiat and crypto. With Crypto.com Exchange, the company is setting its sights on growing its share of the global market, starting from its base in Asia.

The exchange, which is still in beta, has gradually expanded its trading pairs and now offers more than a dozen digital assets, matched with BTC. Crypto.com Exchange has been designed to compete on price and liquidity, boasting lower fees than many of its competitors, particularly for holders of the CRO token. To celebrate the latest upgrade to the exchange, Crypto.com is offering new users 0% trading fees for the first 90 days and a reduction of up to 50% for all existing users.

The upgrade to the exchange’s trading engine, making it capable of handling leveraged positions, hints at the direction Crypto.com will take next. Asian traders, whose love of margin is well documented, have been accustomed to getting their fix on Huobi, Binance, Deribit, and the Singapore-headquartered Bybit.

Asian Interest in Bitcoin Remains Strong

The boom in Robinhood stocks has been attributed to diminished interest in bitcoin among casual traders in the West. In the East, it’s a different picture, with the Asian market driving much of the price discovery that’s seen bitcoin bouncing around between $9-10k for weeks. USDT fuels the majority of the capital inflows to Asian exchanges, particularly in China. The emergence of new exchanges catering for traders within this region, including Crypto.com, has given the incumbents pause for thought and ushered in an era of intense competition for market share.

By the time Crypto.com Exchange celebrates its first birthday, it should have launched margin and derivative trading as well as lending and an OTC arm. Combined with the might of its popular wallet app and Visa card, and Crypto.com is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Asian exchange game.