# The sFOX Story

Institutional infrastructure built to eliminate the structural failures that cost the market $60B+

## sFOX Built for _What The Market Got Wrong_

Since 2014, sFOX has built infrastructure to address structural failures plaguing digital asset markets, including fragmented liquidity, counterparty risk, and commingled assets.

> Not just a safer on-ramp – an infrastructure layer where regulated institutions operate end-to-end.

### When Systems Don’t Connect

Institutions are forced to rely on individual platforms, which creates hidden dependencies and concentrated risk. And when those platforms fail, client funds are left exposed: frozen, inaccessible, or permanently lost.

To date, over **$60B in client assets** have been lost or impaired across major market events. These weren’t edge cases. They were systemic failures. And **sFOX was built to solve them**.

## Built for _Every Market Cycle_

As the market evolved – and at times failed – sFOX remained focused on building durable infrastructure for institutions. Through every cycle, we’ve delivered consistency, resilience, and continued execution.

**2014**

Mt. Gox collapses, exposing the risks of fragmented and immature crypto infrastructure.

The collapse wiped out roughly $56 billion in today’s dollars — underscoring exactly the problem sFOX was built to solve: a reliable, regulated way for institutions to access digital asset markets.

**Market Event**  
Infrastructure begins.

**2014**

sFOX was founded in 2014 by George Melika and Akbar Thobhani.  
Supporting copy: Registered as a Money Services Business with FinCEN, sFOX® is built to provide institutional-grade cryptocurrency trading, liquidity, and infrastructure for businesses and hedge funds.  
**sFOX Milestone**  
It starts here.

**2016**

The Bitfinex hack reinforces the need for stronger controls around digital asset security.

sFOX continues developing institutional trading infrastructure designed around reliability, access, and execution.  
**Market Event**  
Security becomes foundational.

**2018**

sFOX raises $22.7 million to build the first institutional crypto asset management platform.

The Series A round, led by Tribe Capital and Social Capital, funds sFOX’s expansion beyond prime dealing into advanced security, risk management, and market infrastructure for institutional investors.  
**sFOX Milestone**  
Capital to build further.

**2020**

Black Thursday sends crypto markets into one of their fastest and most severe selloffs.  
**Market Event**  
Resilience under pressure.

**2020**

sFOX Top 8  
Named one of the Top 8 Crypto Companies of 2020.  
**sFOX Milestone**  
Recognized through volatility.

**2021**

The Poly Network hack becomes one of the largest digital asset exploits at the time.  
**Market Event**  
Security tested at scale

**2021**

sFOX unveils the first trading platform designed specifically for hedge funds.

The platform brings hedge funds deep global liquidity, trade cost analytics, and flexible settlement in one place — capabilities previously available only to the market’s largest trading firms.  
**sFOX Milestone**  
Institutional workflows, purpose-built.

**2022**

A year of systemic failure.

- Terra and Luna collapse  
- Celsius freezes withdrawals  
- Three Arrows Capital fails  
- Voyager files for Chapter 11

**Market Event**  
Contagion spreads across the market.

**2022**

Trust became the market's scarcest asset.

- FTX files for bankruptcy  
- BlockFi files for bankruptcy

**Market Event**  
The collapse continues.

**2022**

SAFE Trust custody is approved and launched.

Regulated digital asset custody designed to combine asset protection with institutional trading access.  
**sFOX Milestone**  
Custody built for the next market cycle.

**2023**

Genesis files for bankruptcy as the consequences of the previous cycle continue.

sFOX enters the next phase with trading, liquidity, and custody infrastructure already in place.  
**Market Event**  
Built beyond a single cycle.

**2024**

sFOX Connect launches.

A flexible crypto API platform designed to help businesses embed institutional digital asset capabilities into their own products  
**sFOX Milestone**  
One connection. More possibilities.

**2025**

$600B+  
sFOX surpasses $600 billion in transaction volume.

A decade of infrastructure, execution, and institutional market access—proven at scale.  
**sFOX Milestone**  
From first trade to $600B+.

**2026**

BlockFills files for Chapter 11.

Even as institutional adoption grows, counterparty and infrastructure risk remain critical.  
**Market Event**  
The need for durable infrastructure continues.

**2026**

Javier Martinez appointed CEO.

A new chapter of leadership focused on expanding sFOX’s institutional infrastructure and global market capabilities.  
**Leadership**  
Building what comes next.

## Built for a Market That Didn’t Talk to Itself

sFOX unified fragmented markets by aggregating liquidity across venues into a single access point, eliminating reliance on any one exchange or counterparty.

- **One Market, Not Many:** By aggregating liquidity across 40+ providers, sFOX removes the need to connect to and manage multiple exchanges – giving you one unified access point to the global market.
- **Trade without Friction:** With access to 80+ markets through a single platform, institutions can trade seamlessly without navigating disconnected venues or fragmented infrastructure.
- **Scale without Slippage:** Deeper aggregated order book liquidity enables larger trades with reduced slippage, tighter spreads, and more consistent execution.

## Built for _Asset Protection_

As the market matured, the risks became systemic – counterparty exposure, commingled assets, and exchange failures that left billions in client funds frozen or lost.

sFOX built **SAFE** to eliminate those risks.

Client funds remain protected at the source.

Client assets are held in segregated accounts under a regulated Wyoming trust – never commingled, never exposed to the exchange’s balance sheet, and never treated as company assets. Even in a bankruptcy scenario, _client funds remain protected_.

Protection built into the foundation.

Protection from internal failure. Protection from external risk. Built into the foundation.

Beyond structural protection, sFOX enforces institutional-grade security across its infrastructure to defend against external threats.

## Interested in joining our team?  
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Be part of a team solving the hardest problems  
in institutional digital assets