EDX Markets to Offer Tokenized Bitcoin (vBTC) for Institutional Spot Trading

EDX Markets, an institutional-only digital asset trading venue backed by Wall Street trading firms and venture capital investors, said on October 8 that it will list Verified Bitcoin (vBTC) for institutional spot trading. The rollout comes through a partnership with VerifiedX. EDX will also join the VerifiedX network as a validator, expanding its role beyond execution into the infrastructure that helps secure the token. The step adds momentum to Wall Street's push into tokenized Bitcoin, giving institutions a way to deploy BTC across trading, lending and decentralized finance while retaining access to the underlying asset. vBTC is issued on VerifiedX's layer-2 protocol and is designed as a 1:1-backed, programmable representation of Bitcoin. Each vBTC token is collateralized one-to-one by native BTC, incorporates Taproot addresses, and includes a direct redemption mechanism back to Bitcoin. VerifiedX says the structure is self-custodial and non-synthetic, aiming to support institutional use cases including price discovery, cross-market arbitrage, treasury and balance-sheet mobility, and borrowing and lending. The project emphasizes continuous ownership, utilization and redemption rather than creating Bitcoin exposure without a direct path to the underlying asset. VerifiedX also offers an EVM-format representation, vBTC.b, which is intended to carry the same redemption path into supported Ethereum-compatible environments. EDX said its involvement will extend to validating transactions and participating in governance on the VerifiedX network. The companies said the arrangement is meant to help institutions maintain direct control over the threshold-signing environment securing their Bitcoin, rather than depending on a public signing pool. EDX added that its central clearinghouse is designed to reduce bilateral counterparty exposure for institutional participants. “Institutional adoption of digital assets increasingly depends on giving sophisticated market participants greater flexibility in how they trade, move and deploy capital,” said David Olsson, Chief Commercial Officer of EDX Markets. “Bitcoin does not need another financial abstraction. It needs infrastructure that allows the asset itself to do more,” said Jay Pollak, Head of Strategy at the VerifiedX Foundation. EDX said more details on vBTC availability will be released in the coming weeks. The company also said its products remain available only to institutions in the U.S. and certain other jurisdictions.