The announcement of a new artificial intelligence model by Chinese firm Deepseek on the evening of Sunday 26 January led to record trading on Blue Ocean Technologies’ venue for overnight trading of US stocks.

The total notional value of trading during Blue Ocean’s Sunday night session was a record $2.7bn, according to the firm.

Brian Hyndman, chief executive and president of Blue Ocean Technologies, told Markets Media: “On Sunday night, at 8PM EST, investors could trade in AI-related stocks on Blue Ocean, ahead of traditional exchanges opening on Monday morning.”

Blue Ocean clients can trade US National Market System stocks between 8pm EST and 4am EST from Sunday to Thursday, which especially appeals to Asian retail investors who want to buy and sell US stocks during their trading day. The ATS can only operate on those calendar days when the NYSE Trade Report Facility (TRF) is open for reporting the following morning.

Hyndman said Asia Pacific makes up approximately 80% of Blue Ocean’s business, especially South Korea. There are approximately 22 South Korean brokers that do business either directly or indirectly with Blue Ocean, and they make up more than 50% of the ATS’s overall business.

On 21 January 2025 Blue Ocean said in a statement that it will be opening a new office in Yeoido, the financial hub of Seoul, which Hyndman will be visiting at the beginning of February. SukJoon Kim has been  hired as Vice President and head of North APAC at Blue Ocean Technologies in Seoul and starts his new role on 1 February. Kim  has over 25 years of experience in financial markets and was most recently the representative director of LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) Korea,

This expansion builds on Blue Ocean’s existing presence in the Asia-Pacific region, with an established office in Tokyo. In 2023 Blue Ocean formed a strategic partnership with Tokyo Stock Exchange, and the Japanese exchange made a 5% investment in the US firm. South Korea will serve as a base for operations across the north APAC region, including Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

“It is hard to manage relationships across the world and across  time zones,” said Hyndman. “We feel it is very important to manage, grow and cultivate relationships in South Korea, and in north APAC.”

In addition to APAC, Blue Ocean also wants to expand in Singapore, Australia and in Europe this year.

Blue Ocean facilitates trading in US stocks outside traditional trading hours and in November 2024 the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved 24 Exchange, backed by Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures fund, which intends to launch the first round-the-clock exchange.  In the filing 24X said it plans to operate a fully automated electronic trading platform for the trading of listed NMS stocks 23 hours per day, 7 days per week, including certain holidays.

24X National Exchange will be launched in two stages. A first stage will open in the second half of 2025, with the exchange operating from 4 AM EST to 7 PM EST on weekdays. The filing said extended hour trading is subject to Equity Data Plans making changes that would facilitate overnight trading hours and 24X National Exchange making an additional rule filing with the SEC confirming the changes and the Exchange’s ability to comply with the Securities Exchange Act.

Hyndman argued that the regulatory approval for 24X only covers 15 hours. He said: “They have not been approved to trade overnight during the Blue Ocean session. Trading for 24 hours needs a lot of things to happen including real-time trade reporting and the SIP needs to be able to carry and distribute market data overnight.”

The U.S. Securities Information Processor (SIP) consolidates best prices across all the exchanges in the U.S. market.

Blue Ocean has had a good start in January this year, according to Hyndman, and he is “very optimistic” about 2025.

“We did a lot of the work last year to be well positioned to grow and become a scaled entity with the right infrastructure and technology in place, and sales people around the globe,” he said.

Last year the ATS migrated its technology to a platform provided by MEMX, the US equities and options exchange operator.

ATSs are eroding on-exchange market share according to a report, Top market structure trends to watch in 2025, from Crisil Coalition Greenwich. The consultancy said agile newcomers are using cutting-edge technology, innovative business models and a customer-centric approach without the hangover of legacy technology and operational complexity.

However, the report highlighted that incumbents’ size and experience often keep them ahead even when they can’t be quite as nimble.

“And of course, they can and often do buy these innovative upstarts,” said Crisil Coalition Greenwich. “The big winners? Clients who see better prices and products regardless of who comes out on top.”