While the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continues to fluctuate significantly Deutsche Börse Group’s (DBG) strategic commitment to the digital asset space remains strong and consistent, as evidenced by the launch of 360T’s new digital exchange, 3DX.
Built as a fully integrated digital offering within the 360T ecosystem, 3DX is a fully (MiCAR) regulated bilateral trading platform designed specifically to meet the needs of institutional firms. Crucially, it runs on the same infrastructure and operates with the same workflow logic as 360T’s existing SuperSonic trading solutions.
This means that FX market participants already connected to 360T can leverage their existing legal agreements, API connectivity, operational processes and workflows to now also access crypto assets via 3DX. Regardless of whether execution is occurring via GUI or API, the user experience remains exactly the same as on 360T — the only difference occurs in the post-trade workflow.
Innovating around settlement
Settlement for crypto trades is structured on a T+1 basis, deliberately aligning with FX conventions to mirror what treasury departments and risk managers are doing today.
However, 3DX has introduced a significant innovation around settlement risk. Whereas participants are generally asked to prefund trades and accept significant bilateral settlement exposure today, 3DX offers a DvP style model inspired by the CLS framework.
While trading remains bilateral, settlement can be routed through an independent settlement agent. Funds and digital assets are delivered to the agent, which ensures that both sides have funded before simultaneously swapping assets, hence removing settlement risk. Importantly, the service is modular. Clients may use this settlement mechanism or implement their own arrangements, just as they do in FX.
Regulated trading
It’s also important to highlight that 3DX was launched in compliance with MiCAR across the European Union. 3DX offers all the robust governance and operational safeguards that institutional clients would require. We are hopeful that rules around crypto trading will soon solidify in the US and elsewhere, enabling us to scale up 3DX globally.
In addition, 3DX works with a set of well-known liquidity providers in the crypto space to provide clients with competitive crypto prices, offering the same experience as trading on an FX multi-dealer platform.
Growing client demand
The timing of 3DX’s launch was not an accident. We have been building this digital asset ecosystem so that it would be in place for our existing institutional client base when they were ready to trade cryptos.
And we believe that time has come.
Banks, for example, are rapidly moving to offer crypto-related services to their end customers, who have been moving deposits elsewhere if their existing banking institutions don’t offer them crypto services. Banks also recognize that integrating crypto services into their broader offering helps prepare for the emerging tokenized world.
Similarly, as crypto-native brokerage firms have begun to expand their offerings into tokenized securities, traditional brokers are looking to counter this move by offering access to cryptos.
Institutional flows
For the institutional buy-side, the drivers are different.
We see a growing number of asset managers assessing allocation strategies that include crypto Spot, Derivatives and ETF products. However, these are highly regulated, risk-averse institutions, demanding a trading venue which aligns with all their best execution, audit and compliance frameworks.
Many corporate treasurers, meanwhile, are examining stablecoins as tools for cross-border payments that can bypass delays and fees. But treasury departments require regulated venues and familiar settlement cycles to engage. By listing regulated stablecoins, 3DX creates the bridge required by such treasurers.
Beyond these traditional client segments, some crypto-native firms have matured and gained scale. They are increasingly indistinguishable from 360T’s institutional partners.
Opportunities for collaboration
Two of these firms — Bitpanda and Kraken — have announced major partnerships with DBG recently.
In February, 3DX revealed an enhanced integration with Bitpanda designed to accelerate time-to-market for financial institutions looking to expand their digital asset capabilities.
And in December of 2025 Deutsche Börse Group entered into a partnership with Kraken, one of the largest crypto platforms, to offer unified access across traditional and digital asset markets, the first phase of which involved integrating Kraken with 3DX.
This strategic partnership was expanded upon in April of 2026 as DBG announced a $200 million investment in Payward, Inc., the unified infrastructure layer behind Kraken, which resulted in a 1.5% stake in the company.
These partnerships highlight the ongoing convergence between traditional and crypto-native institutions, demonstrating that we are witnessing the emergence of pragmatic collaborations which recognize and augment the strengths of each.
A familiar model
Ultimately, what 3DX does is remove the barriers preventing FX market participants from accessing crypto assets, de-risking their entry and removing the costs normally associated with it.
That is because the platform utilizes 360T’s proven technology to offer the same functionalities, tools and advantages in the crypto space as in FX.
Finally, 3DX preserves the established economic model of the institutional FX market. Unlike many crypto-native platforms, which typically charge liquidity consumers to trade, 3DX maintains a pricing structure where takers do not pay transaction fees — instead, costs are borne by liquidity providers.
Converging marketplaces
In many respects, the evolution of digital assets is beginning to mirror the early days of electronic FX: initial fragmentation and volatility gradually giving way to institutionalization, regulation and scalable market infrastructure.
The next phase of growth will not be driven by speculation alone, but by the ability to embed crypto assets within the operational, risk and governance frameworks that institutional firms already rely on.
3DX represents a deliberate step in that direction, it provides a familiar and robust gateway for institutional participation, which is crucial for the growth and sustainability of the crypto ecosystem.
As traditional finance and crypto-native firms continue to converge, platforms that can bridge both worlds will play an increasingly central role in shaping the future market structure.