Coinsetter Exits Beta to Target Institutional Traders

New York-based bitcoin exchange Coinsetter has officially exited beta, ending the trial stage of its product that began in November of last year.

To promote the launch, Coinsetter is lowering exchange commission fees to 0.10% for most active users, down from 0.25-0.50%. Furthermore, the exchange now offers both email and live phone support.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Coinsetter CEO Jaron Lukasiewicz explained that he feels the exchange is now ready to launch because its liquidity has finally caught up to the quality of its trading tools – a development that allows it to now expand its customer base into new verticals.

He said:

"One of the biggest shifts [has been] moving from a trading platform, which is what a lot of people know us as, to really focus on being a bitcoin exchange. We still do have a focus on people who are trading bitcoin, but we've widening our customer focus to bitcoin ATM operators, payment processors – really anyone who's building a business that needs bitcoin liquidity."

Lukasiewicz went on to suggest that active bitcoin traders should consider the platform due to its easy deposit and withdraw options, and industry-leading trading fees.

To date, Coinsetter has raised $1.5m from investors including Barry Silbert and Tribeca Venture Partners.

Evolving company

Lukasiewicz indicated that the launch follows what he described as a successful beta that helped the company expand on its concept ideas to deliver a more nuanced and full-featured product to the market.

In particular, he cited the quality of Coinsetter's API as one example of this growth, saying:

"Back then, it was a very basic product. [...] Now, we've been able to cut a lot of latency on it. Now, we're going as low as 40 milliseconds. I would expect in the next six months to be down at 10 to 20 milliseconds latency, that really puts us on part with major forex platforms."

Lukasiewicz further noted the company's price alert offerings and LaunchKey product – the latter allowing customers to log in by swiping their mobile phone – as examples of features customers are unlikely to find on other exchanges and added that more advancements are on the way:

"I think you'll see us announce a number of institutional features over the next four weeks. There are a lot of exciting things we offer that we're differentiating from other exchanges."

Regulatory clarity needed

The launch also notably coincides with the ongoing debate over New York's proposed bitcoin regulations, published last week.

When asked how the measures could affect Coinsetter, Lukasiewicz suggested that he feels that the action is positive in principle, but that he would like more clarity regarding how companies like Coinsetter would be affected:

"We were really hoping to see it have a focus on bitcoin exchanges. [...] These regulations only focus on bitcoin, and briefly mentioned buying and selling, and it was very vague about it. We fall in a category that gets constantly left out, which is the three party order-book exchange that does hold customer funds."

The rules are unclear on whether Coinsetter is subject to money transmitting money licenses and whether they have the ability to hold custody of customer funds, he said.

Committed to New York

Coinsetter is now submitting its comments to the New York Department of Financial Services in the hopes of receiving more clarity, and Lukasiewicz is optimistic about its prospects in the location long-term:

"If we want to be an international exchange, we can do it from New York. The problem is not our company location."

He went on to laud New York as a great testing ground for the company, one that allowed it to make key connections with the state's existing financial industry.

Lukasiewicz concluded:

"We're going to stay here, but we hope that New York is friendly to bitcoin companies."

Trading chart image via Shutterstock