TMX Group last week announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary is going to launch a cryptocurrency brokerage service.

According to the official release, TMX’s Shorcan Digital Currency Network (Shorcan DCN) has entered into an agreement with Toronto-based Paycase Financial to launch the cryptocurrency brokerage service with initial focus on bitcoin and ether.

"We are excited to enter in to this agreement with Paycase, an industry leader with an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit," said Peter Conroy, President, Shorcan. "We look forward to putting in the necessary collaborative work in the days ahead as we strive to make Shorcan DCN a lasting success."

In addition, BMO Financial Group will provide Shorcan DCN with banking services as part of the payment and settlement infrastructure.

Shorcan DCN will leverage the combination of Shorcan Brokers' expertise in providing clients in the Canadian financial industry with liquid, efficient, and reliable brokerage services with Paycase's premier cryptocurrency data aggregation platform and established worldwide network of industry leaders and participants. Shorcan DCN and Paycase will also work towards creating proprietary cryptocurrency benchmarks based on consolidated data from the world's leading crypto exchanges as well as over the counter, or OTC, brokered volume.

"Shorcan DCN represents a significant step forward in the execution of TMX Group's digital strategy. As new technologies continue to reshape the global financial industry, we continue to explore new ways to evolve our business to address client needs in both traditional and non-traditional markets,” John Lee, Managing Director, Enterprise Innovation & Product Development, TMX Group added.

The new brokerage service is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2018.

“As the first ever public crypto brokerage desk by an exchange, this deal represents the true institutionalization of cryptocurrencies as an asset class,” Paycase Financial CEO and OECD Think Tank Special Advisor, Joseph Weinberg, said. “Paycase’s partnership with the TMX solved a major problem in the blockchain ecosystem. With this partnership, we have built the first major bridge between the crypto world and the traditional financial markets. This is just a taste of more things to come from the collaborative and tight-knit Canadian community as we build out more products for the world.”