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- Zodia Custody has launched BitMEX on its Interchange network, expanding trading access for eligible institutional clients.
- The setup allows clients to trade on BitMEX while assets remain held in Zodia custody through an off-venue settlement model.
Zodia Custody has added BitMEX to its Interchange network, extending off-venue trading access for institutional clients without requiring them to move assets directly onto an exchange.
The new integration makes BitMEX the latest trading venue available to Zodia Custody Limited (UK) clients through Interchange . The model is straightforward, but strategically important. Clients can trade directly on BitMEX while their assets remain held in Zodia’s custody environment, rather than being pre-funded onto the exchange itself.
Off-venue settlement keeps custody and execution separate
Interchange uses collateral locking and asset mirroring to reserve client assets for trading activity while keeping them protected until settlement. In effect, Zodia is offering institutions a way to access centralized market liquidity without taking on the same level of exchange-side custody exposure that has long made some firms cautious.
For larger trading desks, that matters. Counterparty risk, custody controls, and settlement design are no longer secondary concerns in digital asset markets. They are increasingly central to whether institutions participate at scale in the first place.
Wing Cheah, Zodia Custody’s head of Interchange product, said the BitMEX launch gives clients direct access to a major derivatives venue while keeping assets in cold storage until settlement.
BitMEX deepens its institutional positioning
For BitMEX, the partnership strengthens its pitch as an institutional-grade derivatives platform rather than only a legacy crypto exchange brand. The exchange described the tie-up as a way to reinforce security, transparency and compliance for professional clients.
Zodia, meanwhile, is clearly trying to position Interchange as a broader institutional liquidity network, one that appeals both to established financial firms and crypto-native participants looking for more robust market structure.
That framing matters because the competition is shifting. The next phase of institutional crypto trading is likely to be shaped less by who offers simple access to markets and more by who can offer access without forcing institutions to compromise on custody, settlement and control of assets. In that context, adding BitMEX is not just another venue integration. It is part of a larger buildout around how institutional crypto trading is supposed to work.
