Trade.io identifies itself as a “next-generation” financial institution that consists of a cryptocurrency trading platform, a decentralized Liquidity Pool, its Consulting Services and Incubator. It was established in Hong Kong in 2017, which is where the world’s most cryptocurrency exchanges are based. In November 2017, Trade.io held a successful ICO raising over $31m to fund its ambitious project.

The team of trade.io has plenty of experience in investment banking, trading and risk management for over 20 years and brokerage firms such as FXPrimus and Primus Capital Market UK were created by members of the team. At the heart of the vision of the trade.io team is a willingness to bring control back to the consumer and take power from the large banks using blockchain technology. Moreover, the creators want to revolutionize the exchange system through a blockchain platform that allows users to trade both physical and digital assets such as crypto, oil, and other commodities. According to its website, trade.io is a “better, smarter, faster” exchange with “lightning-fast execution”.

Trade.io officially launched its exchange in April 2018. As of July 2019, trade.io has a total trade volume of $1.1m per day or 103.40 BTC serving the crypto market via no less than 91 active markets. In addition, trade.io currently offers 96 trading pairs and 45 different cryptocurrencies, while charging only 0.10% trading fees, which are low for the industry and thus appealing to traders.

A very special feature of trade.io is its Liquidity Pool and to enter it users must give to the pool at least 2500 TIOs. The whole concept is that the daily profits are shared amongst the token holders at a rate of 50/50 for the owners of trade.io and the token owners. The exchange puts in 50% of funds from every revenue stream such as spreads and risk positions and from the profit generated in the pool a daily payout is received by traders depending on how many tokens they have put in the pool. If there is a loss, the wallet of the user remains intact and the user can leave the pool at any time. The Liquidity Pool started with 50 million TIOs and it is a source of profit for users that cannot be found elsewhere.

The platform has become popular due to this special feature, the low trading fees, the flexible interface and the lightning-speed execution. Moreover, trade.io complies with all KYC and AML requirements and uses cold storage for increased security. Nonetheless, in October 2018 there was a security breach of the cold storage wallets that led to a loss of $7.5m worth of TIOs, which raises concerns about the security of cold storage and the exchange more generally.