After gatecrashing the institutional crypto exchange world in May, CrossTower is announcing a $6 million seed funding round led by technology investor Gerard Lopez. 

Launched in May, CrossTower aims to cater to larger investors with a crypto-to-crypto trading platform supporting nine assets, including Bitcoin, Ether, LiteCoin, XRP and Chainlink. 

The launch of CrossTower comes at a time when many crypto firms are adding services aimed at institutional investors. A press statement says the experience of the firm’s senior team members building traditional trading platforms will be an advantage.

CrossTower features a novel fee schedule, at least for the crypto world. Unlike other crypto exchanges that use rebates to incentivize market makers to add liquidity, CrossTower will pay takers to trade. Cheaper trading could lure new participants to the market. 

According to co-founder and CEO Kapil Rathi, the exchange has experienced “great initial success” in its first few weeks.

"We measure our initial success by healthy liquidity and a growing number of inbound customer requests, especially on the non-retail, institutional side of the business," Rathi said. "In the first few weeks out of the gate, our order book spread and depth are very competitive and our market makers are really demonstrating trust in us."