Crypto Trading Platform Enclave Seeks to Encourage Safer Markets Through Dark Pools

Named Enclave Cross, the new platform from Enclave aims to allow crypto trading without any information leakage, slippage or front-running.

The product is an over-the-counter (OTC) dark pool that services institutional clients, and will include know-your-customer (KYC) protocol. The platform currently supports trading of bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), Avalanche’s AVAX, and Circle’s USD coin (USDC), with more to be added.

“This is the first truly cryptographically provable, fair, and neutral marketplace,” Enclave CEO David Wells told CoinDesk. As exchange operators, explained Wells, Enclave has no visibility into customer order flow prior to it hitting the order book. The platform also doesn’t doesn’t contain internal market makers or preferential access, he added.

Thanks to being a stablecoin-based product (as opposed to fiat), Enclave Cross can operate in several jurisdictions without licensing, though the company is in the process of applying for licenses in instances where it’s needed.

Enclave wants to use technology to solve the aforementioned trading issues, said Wells, and the growth of institutional interest in crypto has opened doors for this type of platform.

“Since all assets and trades are being held and executed off-chain, others in the marketplace will see only when funds are withdrawn from the platform, reducing the impact of a time mismatch of buyers and sellers,” Wells said in a statement Thursday.

Read more: Institutions Use This Strategy to Hide Their Bitcoin Orders

UPDATE (Sept. 8, 2022, 14:41 UTC): Updates image and clarifies Avalanche's symbol.