IEX, the ‘Flash Boys’ Exchange, Enters the DeFi Data Initiative Space

IEX, led by Brad Katsuyama, has long been critical of how exchanges like Nasdaq and the Intercontinental Exchange charge for market data. So it’s no surprise that the New York-based trading company has entered the Pyth Network, DeFi data initiative.

IEX Enters The DeFi Data Initiative Space

The Securities and Exchange Commission granted IEX exchange status in 2016, and the company is well-known for Michael Lewis’ “Flash Boys,” which documented Katsuyama’s founding of the firm. Even back then, he was criticizing the practice of charging for market data.

“Exchanges don’t create any unique content – market data is generated by their members and other market participants, including real investors – so it’s very difficult to believe that exchanges can perpetually charge their members more every year to look at the members’ data,” Katsuyama told Insider’s Matt Turner in 2016.

In an interview, he stated that it is still an issue today.

“They demand exorbitant price premiums compared to the cost of running such systems to benefit from those regulatory moats,” he explained. The moats were erected when they were non-profit organizations… yet the moats remain. In a manner, this is what led to the toxic relationship with market data.”

Free The Data

According to a person acquainted with the company’s operations, Pyth was formed out of Jump Trading’s deep dive into the DeFi industry this summer. The project’s goal is to make market data more available to developers.

Specifically, the platform is based on the Solana blockchain is putting stock market data on-chain through collaborations with trading businesses like Virtu Financial, exchanges like LMAX Group, and now IEX’s data section, IEX Cloud.

IEX Cloud, an exchange business, has entered Pyth, a new trading platform for DeFi.According to Katsuyama, the move “speeds up the innovation that can happen there and enhances the dependability of the data others can build on top of.”