MEMX, an equities and options exchange operator and market technology provider, is combining with BOX Options, a U.S. equity options market with both electronic and floor-based trading, to service clients’ full liquidity needs.

On 30 July 2026 MEMX announced that TMX Group, the Canadian exchange operator and financial infrastructure provider, will be making a strategic investment.

At the same time, BOX Options, which is co-owned by TMX Group, will be combined with MEMX to create an expanded exchange group operating three options exchanges and an equities exchange. MEMX operates an equities exchange, an options exchange – MEMX Options, and is also due to launch MX2 Options, a new customer priority, pro-rata options exchange in September this year.

The transaction will create a consolidated U.S. exchange group with an enterprise value of approximately $2.3bn, according to the statement. TMX Group will have an approximately 59% ownership interest in the combined business with investments from Chicago Trading Company, Citadel Securities, IMC, Interactive Brokers, Jane Street, Markets Infrastructure Partners (MIP), Morgan Stanley, Optiver, Schwab, Virtu Financial, and Wolverine. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2027.

Jonathan Kellner, chief executive of MEMX, told Markets Media that the group has always had an eye on fragmentation in the options space, and has been looking for an opportunity to do something that would help the industry.

Kellner added that MEMX has been thinking about BOX and talking to TMX about it over the past couple of years. He said: “We like BOX’s overall business and believe that adding them to our two platforms is complementary as we will be able to service our clients’ full liquidity needs.”

MEMX said in a blog that the combined company will offer a complete options trading toolkit, including continuous single-leg and multi-leg trading, price improvement auctions, institutional block mechanisms and customizable FLEX contracts.

The blog added that the combined exchanges captured a 10% total market share in the year to date through July, including market share of 11% in single-leg electronic trading, 5% in multi-leg electronic, 7% in auctions and 27% on the trading floor.

BOX has a floor and a very rich feature set in their electronic marketplace, according to Kellner. He argued that MEMX can leverage BOX’s expertise to figure out how, and when, to implement that on its medallions.

Once the deal completes, MEMX’s goal is to consolidate onto one platform using the best technology from both firms. Kellner said MEMX loves the fact that it is getting an experienced set of developers who have been running the BOX platform for over 20 years.

“Our differentiator is that our technology is brand new,” he added. “Adding that technology to a full options offering has big potential.”

Differentiation is important as there are almost 20 options exchanges operating in the U.S. That number will increase when MEMX’s second options exchange, MX2 Options, begins trading on 14 September 2026.

Two industry user acceptance tests were held in August and a third is scheduled for the weekend before live trading is due to begin. Geralyn Endo, head of options business development, said in a blog that several members participated and MEMX  was “very satisfied” that the majority of the functionality that was tested is working.

MEMX plans to begin trading 10 symbols on 14 September and reach all names by 29 September through increasing the number of symbols in a phased roll out.

“After discussions with many of our members and our options market structure committee, we have decided to create a lead market maker program for MX2,” added Endo. “Already we have had several firms commit to becoming LMMs on MX2 and we are currently working on initial symbol assignments.”

Equities

Kellner said that as MEMX combines BOX and becomes a bigger player, it will reinvest in equities and continue to grow that business as well.

MEMX reported that its equities exchange hit new records for total share volume and retail share volume in June. Market share was 2.42% in June and total volume rose 40% year-over-year to 566 million daily shares. Retail volume increased 61% year-over-year to 260 million daily shares and retail accounted for 46% of total volume.

Volume was boosted by the IPO of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space and AI company, which began trading as a public company on June 12. From June 12 to the end of the month, SpaceX was the sixth most active retail stock on MEMX with $1.7bn traded, accounting for 3.5% of retail notional.

In addition, several leveraged SpaceX ETFs traded $192m in retail volume on MEMX.

Extended equities trading hours of 23×5 is planned in the U.S for 6 December 2026. in preparation the SEC is hosting a roundtable to discuss 24-hour trading on 17 September.

Kellner said: “We have been supporting overnight markets for two years with Blue Ocean, so we have a lot of experience there.”

In 2024 Blue Ocean Technologies chose the MEMX trading system to operate the Blue Ocean ATS global trading platform, which provides overnight trading of U.S stocks.

Prediction contracts

On 12 August 2026 MEMX announced that it has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to list equities-based exchange prediction contracts on the MEMX Options exchange.

These are event contracts on publicly traded companies designed to provide investors with targeted exposure to objective, quantifiable measures of a company’s financial performance, including earnings, revenue, sales and other key issuer-specific metrics.

“Everyone has seen the growth in prediction markets and we are focused on SEC-regulated products,” added Kellner. “We think there is a desire to trade contracts that are based on something within a company that is publicly reported.”

For example, the metrics could include iPhone sales at Apple. Investors would be able to trade complementary ‘yes’ and ‘no’ contracts with prices ranging from $0.01 to $0.99. MEMX said the proposed contracts will benefit from central clearing, know-your-customer requirements and MEMX’s existing regulatory and market-surveillance programs.

Milan Galik, chief executive at Interactive Brokers, said in a statement that the broker will support MEMX’s proposed event contracts. Galik said: “We look forward to offering these products when they are available and giving our clients another way to manage risk around company announcements or express a view on individual stocks.”

In June this year Cboe Global Markets launched the first products in Cboe Predicts, its new prediction markets suite, with a mini S&P 500 index prediction market contract.

Craig Donohue, chief executive of Cboe, said on the first quarter results call that the group sees significant growth ahead as prediction contracts become increasingly integrated into the financial markets. Donohue said: “Longer term, we see a compelling opportunity to introduce additional contracts around economic and financial indicators.”

Donohue argued that Cboe is particularly strong in equity and equity derivatives, so the group is “super keen” on coming to market with company-specific contracts.

Kellner said MEMX’s prediction product is focused on trying to centralize liquidity, so the ‘yes’ trades against the ‘no’. He added: “We have been working with the regulator for a while and we think we should be able to launch in early 2027.”

The launch is subject to SEC approval and operational readiness. MEMX said it expects the contracts to be available to investors through Interactive Brokers and other distribution partners.