CEX.IO PRIME LIQUIDITY
Institutional Crypto Liquidity Provider
One aggregated order book across 15+ CEX and DEX venues. Send one order and receive one consolidated fill at one volume-weighted price.
What CEX.IO Prime Liquidity is
CEX.IO Prime is a single infrastructure layer. It aggregates institutional crypto liquidity and adds everything a business needs to operate on it, so one platform covers execution, custody, settlement, payments and financing. You hold one account, sign one agreement and integrate once.
One integration replaces many
Every connected venue sits behind the Prime API. You keep one set of credentials, one reporting stream and one counterparty relationship, and CEX.IO maintains the venue accounts, connections and compliance perimeters underneath. A dedicated account manager and a 24/7 institutional desk stay available throughout.
Who works with Prime
More than 1,000 institutional clients run on CEX.IO Prime: funds, brokers and exchanges, payment institutions, banks, OTC desks, treasury and trading firms, and fintechs embedding digital-asset rails into their own products. CEX.IO configures products, assets, rails, limits and controls per client at onboarding.
How aggregated execution works
You send one order. The execution engine reads depth across every connected venue, splits the order and routes each slice to the best available price, then returns the result as a single fill.
Smart order routing
The engine decides where each slice goes at the moment it goes. A 100 BTC buy order can fill across a dozen or more venues at once, with the largest share landing wherever depth sits deepest that second and the rest spread across the remaining books. You see none of that work, only the outcome.
Order slicing
Slicing keeps a large order off any single book, which holds market impact down at size. You place one order and the engine handles the sizing.
One consolidated fill
Every slice returns as one Prime fill at one volume-weighted price. You reconcile a single trade, and the internal ledger updates your account and your reports.
What you can build on Prime Liquidity
Prime Liquidity sits under several business models. Some clients trade their own book on it. Others put it underneath a product of their own and keep the brand, the interface and the customer relationship, while Prime runs execution and accounts below. Sub-accounts carry the separation where a model needs it, per end client or per business line.
White-label brokerage
Offer your end clients a branded trading experience. You integrate the Prime API and map each end client to a sub-account. When an end client trades in your app, you submit the order on that sub-account, Prime executes against aggregated liquidity and settles on the same sub-account. You launch without multi-venue connectivity or a custody build.
OTC desk enablement
CEX.IO enables OTC access per client. Your desk then sends the asset, the side, the size and the settlement asset to its account manager, the manager sources a price and presents it with a validity period, and your desk confirms in writing inside that period. The trade executes off the order book and settles on your Prime account, and the written exchange serves as the audit record.
Embedded buy and sell
Add a one-action buy or sell of a digital asset against fiat to your own app. A user taps buy or sell, Prime quotes a fixed price for a short window, and on confirmation Prime runs the deposit, the conversion and the balance update on a buy, or the conversion and the withdrawal on a sell, over instant fiat rails. The result lands in the user's sub-account.
Wholesale liquidity
Fill your own order book or inventory from Prime's aggregated book. An exchange, broker or market maker connects over the Prime API including FIX for market data and execution, then executes against Prime Liquidity to fill its book, hedge exposure or replenish inventory. Fills settle into your Prime account, and one connection replaces many venue connections.
Convert as a service
Offer in-app crypto to crypto conversion to your end users. Prime holds a fixed price for a short window, quotes larger sizes on request, and triangulates through an intermediate asset where no direct pair exists, then credits the destination asset to the user's sub-account. You build no venue connectivity and no conversion engine.
Treasury management
Run your own treasury on the same account. You fund one Prime account in fiat or crypto, then pick the execution route that fits each operation, from the live order book to a fixed price, a quote, or an assisted block. Every operation lands on the same balances, the same ledger and the same reports, and sub-accounts separate strategy capital, reserves and operational funds.
Let's structure access around your flow.
Explore the platform or talk to our team, and we will show you exactly what Prime does for your flow.
FAQ
What is a crypto liquidity provider?
A crypto liquidity provider quotes prices and fills institutional orders in digital assets. It holds inventory or sources it from trading venues, so a client trades one counterparty and skips connecting to every exchange separately. CEX.IO Prime aggregates 15+ centralised and decentralised venues into one book and returns each order as one consolidated fill. This differs from a DeFi liquidity pool, where users deposit tokens into a smart contract and share the trading fees.
How does liquidity aggregation work at CEX.IO Prime?
Aggregation combines the depth of every connected venue into one order book. When you send an order, the execution engine reads that depth, slices the order and routes each slice to the venue offering the best available price. The slices return as one Prime fill at one volume-weighted price, and the internal ledger updates your account. You reconcile one trade regardless of how many venues filled it.
What is the difference between a liquidity provider and a market maker?
A market maker posts two-sided quotes on a venue, adds depth to that venue and earns the bid-ask spread while it manages inventory risk. A liquidity provider fills a client order on request and can source that fill from any venue. CEX.IO Prime works as a liquidity provider and trades no proprietary book against its clients, so the execution stays conflict-free.
Which execution methods does CEX.IO Prime support?
Four methods run on one account. The order book takes market and limit orders against aggregated depth. RFQ returns an agreed price before you commit, which suits larger tickets. Instant Convert fixes a price for a short window and triangulates through an intermediate asset where no direct pair exists. Assisted OTC execution puts your account manager on large or negotiated blocks, which execute off the order book. Every method settles on the same account and appears in the same reports.
How many venues does CEX.IO Prime connect to?
CEX.IO Prime combines depth from 15+ centralised and decentralised venues into a single book, and it maintains every venue account, connection and compliance perimeter on its own side. You integrate once and reach all of them.
What execution quality can we expect at size?
On a representative $1M BTC market order, aggregated execution shows an effective spread of 3 to 8 bps, slippage of around 5 bps, a 97% fill rate at size and a median fill time of around 1.2 seconds. A single-venue baseline for the same order sits near 18 bps, 12 bps, 78% and 4.0 seconds. These are approximate values based on aggregated execution data, provided for general reference. CEX.IO benchmarks your own flow the same way before you go live.
How do institutions connect? Does CEX.IO Prime support FIX?
Yes. Prime supports FIX 4.4 for institutional order flow, plus REST and WebSocket for trading, market data and account state, and Webhooks to push events into your own systems. A web terminal covers manual trading. Your team integrates and tests in a sandbox environment before CEX.IO issues production keys, and a 24/7 institutional desk supports the work.
Which assets, currencies and networks can we trade and settle?
Prime covers 500+ assets, including BTC, ETH and stablecoins, with on-chain settlement across 60+ networks on Layer 1 and Layer 2. Fiat settles in USD, EUR and GBP over SEPA, SEPA Instant, Faster Payments and SWIFT. CEX.IO adds assets, networks and rails as client demand arrives.
How does settlement work, and can we settle fiat and crypto together?
One counterparty settles both sides on the same account, same day. Fiat moves on SEPA, SEPA Instant, Faster Payments and SWIFT, covering domestic and international wires. Crypto settles on-chain across 60+ networks. Settlements run in real time today, so you skip the handoffs between a liquidity provider, a bank and a payment partner.