Crypto 'Exchange of Exchanges' ShortHop Expands to 7 US States

ShortHop, an "Exchange of exchanges" for cryptocurrency trading, has launched in seven additional U.S. states.

Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, the exchange and brokerage has opened for business in Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Arizona and Montana.

While the exchange's parent company, technology provider Velocity Markets, is registered as a money services business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, ShortHop had to apply for money transmitter licenses in each state where it does business.

The difference is that ShortHop also has its own exchange.

"ShortHop is a spot market first, but we're aggregating liquidity across the ecosystem," Kelfer said, adding that the service is plugged into a "Couple dozen" exchanges and OTC desks.

Kelfer founded the company in the early part of the initial coin offering boom, seeing a need for reliable American exchanges.

"You really had to get on some Chinese exchange, because U.S. exchanges weren't listing most of these tokens."

ShortHop also allows customers to "Hop" between these assets without having to go through multiple conversions on different exchanges.

Velocity Markets is also building a digital securities exchange.

It owns a broker-dealer under the legal name Distributed Technology Markets that has an alternative trading system form on file at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.