LMAX reports Revenues of $118 million in 2021, up 79%
Institutional FX and crypto brokerage house LMAX Group has released its full year 2021 financial report, indicating a record year for the company – and justifying the $1 billion valuation garnered by LMAX in mid 2021, when private equity investor J.C. Flowers bought a 30% stake in the company.
Overall, Revenues at LMAX came in at $118 million, up 79% from $66 million in 2020. The company reported EBITDA of $62 million in 2021, more than double 2020’s $30 million.
LMAX 5-year results chart summary:
LMAX saw total group trading volumes of US$5.4 trillion in 2021 ($450 billion monthly), up 20% from 2020 – including more than $500 billion in crypto trading volumes, an area of rapid growth for the company although still less than 10% of overall volumes at LMAX.
Client assets held at LMAX topped $772 million at year-end 2021, up from $425 million the previous year.
The company said that its performance recorded in 2021 was driven by growth across all business lines, as LMAX continued to strengthen its distribution capabilities and infrastructure globally, particularly in the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions. Revenues were higher than 2020 as the Group grew its institutional market share in both traditional FX and crypto currency markets, despite volatility and downward pressure on volumes.
Over the course of the year, LMAX Digital maintained its position as the primary price discovery venue in the market and continued to drive institutional adoption of crypto currencies, delivering over $500 billion in volumes, up 340% year on year.
Looking forward, LMAX said that it will continue to invest for future growth alongside increasing operational support across the Group. Planned organic investment is focused on the following 3 areas:
- Scaling up existing exchange infrastructure as well as investing in delineation/modularisation of existing brands and products.
- Diversification – adding new products and revenue streams through expanding its regional footprint and establishing new partnerships to leverage opportunities in the institutional crypto ecosystem.
- Investment in corporate governance and organisational structure to facilitate growth and drive controlled expansion with the oversight from functional experts.
David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Group, commented:
“2021 was a milestone year for LMAX Group as we successfully navigated through challenging global macroeconomic conditions to achieve record volumes, revenues and EBITDA. This strong performance was the result of years of investment in our market-leading proprietary technology and efforts to diversify our product offering and geographic reach, establishing a robust ‘business for all seasons’.
During the year, our unique business model was vindicated with the sale of a 30% stake to leading private investment firm, J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC. We continued to grow our share of both the institutional FX and crypto market and saw a meaningful increase in adoption of crypto assets by institutions, with more than 600 now actively trading on LMAX Digital.
LMAX Group is at the forefront of advancing the convergence between digital assets and traditional capital markets. As we look ahead, we are confident that with continued market evolution, combined with our commitment to invest in future growth and operational infrastructure, we are on track to achieve our strategic objective of becoming the pre-eminent venue for all institutional FX and crypto currency trading.”
About LMAX
LMAX Group is based in London and is a leading independent operator of multiple institutional execution venues for FX and crypto currency trading. The LMAX Group portfolio includes LMAX Exchange, LMAX Global and LMAX Digital.
LMAX Exchange operates multiple global institutional FX exchanges and an FCA regulated MTF (Multilateral Trading Facility). A central limit order book (CLOB) execution model offers streaming firm limit order liquidity from top tier banks and non-bank institutions, transparent price discovery, no ‘last look’ rejections and full control over trading strategy and costs.
LMAX Global is a leading regulated broker for FX, metals and commodities worldwide. Servicing retail brokers and professional traders, LMAX Global offers access to deep institutional FX liquidity, tight spreads and transparent, precise execution with no ‘last look’ rejections.
LMAX Digital is a leading institutional spot crypto currency exchange. Based on proven, proprietary technology from LMAX Group, LMAX Digital allows global institutions to acquire, trade and hold digital assets such as BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH and XRP safely and securely. LMAX Digital is regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) as a DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) provider for execution and custody services.