Bitstamp, Europe’s largest bitcoin exchange by trade volume, today announced it has integrated a new matching engine from Nasdaq’s technology vendor arm Market Technology.
With the new engine, orders are matched as they are opened, without placing them in a waiting queue. Customers have certainty that when their order is placed, it will either be promptly executed or they will be immediately notified that the order could not be matched at that moment – a significant benefit to high-frequency and institutional traders who need to make split-second decisions regarding their orders.
“By upgrading their technology with a scalable and robust solution from Nasdaq, Bitstamp can continue to bolster their capacity, performance, and resiliency,” said Andy Green, VP, Nasdaq Market Technology.
The new matching engine will allow Bitstamp to match orders up to 1250x faster and increase the platform’s throughput by up to 400x compared to their earlier solution. The exchange’s previous infrastructure was fast enough for the average investor, however, the upgrade will be positively noticeable by high-frequency traders. Moreover, the new matching engine provides Bitstamp with the infrastructure to roll out new order types and trading pairs efficiently and at scale.
“The new matching engine from Nasdaq doesn’t just bolster Bitstamp’s performance, it gives us a great foundation from which to build new features,” said David Osojnik, Chief Technology Officer at Bitstamp.
Bitstamp is aiming to increase the new engine’s performance gradually over the course of this year, steadily reducing the latency of every order placed across all its platforms. The most significant difference will come in API trading, where Bitstamp will use the new matching engine’s capabilities to start working on a rebuilt FIX API that will enable trade execution in speeds under a millisecond.
This new technology implementation comes at a busy time for Bitstamp. The exchange recently introduced GBP trading, with all its fiat and cryptocurrencies now paired with GBP. It has also launched support for two new cryptocurrencies in June – Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Paxos Standard (PAX).