24 Exchange won Best in 24-Hour Trading at 2026 Global Markets Choice Awards. Markets Media spoke with founder and CEO Dmitri Galinov about the origins of the platform, the challenges of building 23/5 market infrastructure, and what comes next for the Exchange.

What market gap led you to build a 24-hour trading model?

We discerned about five years ago that, based on our FX NDF and Crypto trading platforms, there was a real global appetite for a 23/5 trading system for U.S. equities. This realization was compounded by the growing number of retail investors in Asia, who were inherently disadvantaged by current market hours. We did not see an exchange system under SEC regulation that would provide these investors with this opportunity, so we set out to create one. We wanted to build an exchange where global investors could confidently and safely trade U.S. investors on a timetable that worked for them and under the SEC’s full range of investor protections.

It is worth noting that when we first sought SEC approval for 23/5 trading four-plus years ago, we were told we were ahead of our time. In the intervening years, the demand for round-the-clock trading has just continued to grow – so much so that NYSE, Nasdaq and CBOE are now actively following our lead.

What were the key challenges in launching and scaling continuous trading infrastructure?

First and foremost, we needed to ensure that all of the regulatory components were in place. We had to create and gather the necessary prerequisites for approval from the SEC, which was thankfully granted in 2024. Now, we are awaiting a decision from the SEC about whether they will heed our request for a temporary exemption from the Securities Information Processors plan and allow us to launch overnight trading before December.

Aside from the regulatory front, we brought in MEMX technologies to power our platform and ensure we deliver the reliability our broker-dealer clients both expect and demand.

While we have about three dozen major broker-dealers signed on to 24X so far, we are continuing to talk with others about becoming approved members of our 23/5 national exchange.

How does 24 Exchange differ from traditional venues and other trading platforms?

We are the first SEC-approved exchange fully dedicated to 23/5 U.S. equities trading, and the only one with an executive team already skilled in round-the-clock trading. Everything we do centers on this mission to optimize our customers’ experience, deliver unparalleled reliability, and keep costs low. This past March, we launched a retail trade pricing for our members to drive greater retail limit order flow while attracting liquidity providers to the exchange. Our retail program’s pricing is set at $0.0038 (38-mils) rebate. In addition to very competitive pricing, 24X is offering warrants program to its members and sponsored participants, where they can earn equity in the exchange for the order flow contribution.

What structural shifts are you seeing in global markets as trading moves toward 24/7 access?

The demand we noticed four years ago for round-the-clock trading has just continued to grow and we do not see it slowing down any time soon. The biggest development is that DTCC will be offering 24/7 clearing with tokenized securities offering. We are also seeing the major legacy national exchanges moving to offer around the clock trading that is intentionally more transparent and fully regulated, as opposed to the ATS platforms that currently operate over extended hours.

What are your priorities for 24 Exchange over the next 12–24 months?

We are anticipating a decision from the SEC regarding our exemption from the SIPS, hopefully soon. If approved, overnight trading could commence on 24X as soon as the end of June/mid-July – this would be a major milestone, not only for our exchange but for the whole industry.

In the interim, we are continuing to work with MEMX to ensure our platform is seamless, efficient and reliable. We are also continuing to communicate with both current broker-dealer customers and potential new ones. In the ensuing weeks and months, we are continuing to highlight the benefits of our exchange and raise awareness of our innovative product across all of our key markets.

Overall, I am quite pleased with how everything has unfolded so far. We identified a tangible market gap and are actively working to close it with approval from a very globally respected regulator – the SEC. The opportunity ahead of us is significant, and we’re just getting started. Exciting times indeed.