MX2, the second options exchange from MEMX, an equities and options exchange operator and market technology provider, has continued to build volume and market share since its launch in September, as the group is preparing for its upcoming combination 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 merge with MEMX to create an expanded exchange group. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

MX2 Options began live trading on 14 September 2026. On its first day, MX2 Options traded over 1,500 contracts across 10 symbols with participation from 19 member firms. Over the following two weeks, the exchange continued to scale operations until all symbols, over 3,600, went live on 30 September 2026 with 10 dedicated lead market makers (LMMs) providing continuous liquidity.

Geralyn Endo, Head of Options Business Development at MEMX Group, told Markets Media that the launch of its second options market has gone smoothly after extensive industry testing with financial market infrastructures and market participants. She added that more than 30 members across a variety of market participants had fully onboarded at launch. The launch followed SEC approval in October 2025 and three rounds of industry user acceptance testing. The Options Clearing Corporation, which provides clearing and settlement for MX2, said that because the exchange is built on MEMX’s existing technology and connectivity infrastructure, it was able to bring MX2 online through a streamlined onboarding process.

“Our client support has been fabulous,” said Endo.

According to MEMX, MX2 hit a new daily record of 360,922 contracts traded on 30 October, the last trading day of the month, compared with just over 1,500 contracts on its first day of trading in September. Daily volume has typically held above 200,000 contracts since late September.

Jonathan Kellner, chief executive of MEMX Group, said in a statement that the focus is on building on the early activity and continuing to deepen liquidity across the exchange. He added: “We created MX2 to give market participants another way to access options liquidity, and we’re excited to see that vision take shape as the market continues to grow.”

That activity has continued to build. On 27 October, MX2 reached 0.56% of total options volume and 1.07% of regular electronic volume, up from 0.43% and 0.76% respectively on 30 September. Over the course of October, MX2’s share generally ranged between about 0.3% and 0.5% of total volume and roughly 0.6% and 0.8% of regular electronic volume.

MX2 has launched into a record-setting options market. Industry options volume, excluding index options, hit a new high of 69.9 million contracts per day in June, up 42% year-over-year, according to MEMX.

On 1 November, MX2 reduced add fees for market makers by 60%, from $0.50 to $0.20 per contract, in SPY, QQQ and IWM. MEMX said MX2 already offers attractive customer rates for both adding and removing liquidity, and that customer orders remain a core source of liquidity on the book. The lower market maker fee is intended to complement those rates by encouraging market makers to quote more competitively alongside customer interest, with the goal of more diverse liquidity at the top of book, greater displayed size and more time at the NBBO.

MX2 adds a customer priority, pro-rata allocation model that allows larger orders to receive preference for execution, which encourages liquidity providers to put more size on the order book. In contrast MEMX Options, the group’s first options exchange which was launched in September 2023, uses a price time-model in which orders are executed on a first in/first out basis after determining the best price, which encourages liquidity provision and tighter spreads.

On MEMX Options, average daily contracts traded grew 21% year-over-year to 2.7 million in September this year, according to the firm. Market share improved to 4.3% of total and 8.1% of regular electronic and MEMX said strong quote performance has been a key contributor to growth. In October, MEMX Options average daily contracts traded were 2.8 million, the second-best month in the exchange’s history, with market share of 4.2% of total and 7.9% of regular electronic.

The majority of large options traders use both of these models, according to Endo, so MX2 has attracted some new firms to the group. She said the new offer is particularly attractive to the market maker community as some prefer the price-time, and others prefer the pro-rata model.

“We wanted to launch a pro-rata exchange to target both of these niches,” she added. 

MX2 also has preference market maker functionality, allowing firms to designate an affiliated market maker upon order entry and potentially resulting in a higher trade allocation to the preferenced market maker.  However, Endo described the technical changes as “minimal” as MEMX developers were already familiar with building an options exchange and members were already familiar with the group’s technology. Market makers had to establish connectivity to MX2 but a number of the firms took advantage of not requiring a new physical connection. Endo said MEMX offers a multi-market connection to customers, depending on their capacity and data requirements.

“We make a tweak on our side, and that single connection can be configured such that firms can access MEMX equities and both options exchanges if they choose,” she added. “The functionality is there for order routing firms in particular and a number of them took advantage.”

Expanding the options franchise

Endo highlighted that MEMX has achieved market share of over 4% with its first options platform, and that MX2 and the BOX acquisition speak to the need to have an offering that spans all the different market models and options.

The combined MEMX and BOX exchanges would capture 10% total market share, including market share of 11% in single-leg electronic, 5% in multi-leg electronic, 7% in auctions, and 27% in floor trading according to MEMX. 

In addition, MEMX plans to launch new options products and new functionality to its options exchanges in response to client demand. In August this year MEMX announced that it has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to list equities-based exchange prediction contracts on MEMX Options.

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.