OneChronos Surpasses 0.3% of U.S. Equity Volume with $4.5 Billion Daily Trades

New York – OneChronos, the innovative stock exchange founded by Kelly Littlepage and Steven Johnson, has rapidly grown to handle billions of dollars in daily trades, now accounting for over 0.3% of all U.S. equity volume. Launched in 2022, the alternative trading system (ATS) has emerged as a significant player in the financial markets by applying advanced auction theory and artificial intelligence to optimize trade execution. Its co-founders recently discussed their journey and the platform's unique approach in an interview, detailing their efforts to revolutionize Wall Street's trading mechanisms.

OneChronos operates what it terms "Smart Markets," leveraging Nobel Prize-winning combinatorial auction techniques and AI to match orders. Unlike traditional exchanges that prioritize speed, OneChronos focuses on maximizing price improvement and finding mutually beneficial outcomes for buyers and sellers. The platform runs periodic auctions multiple times per second, seeking optimal matches across all orders rather than sequential, speed-based matching, which aims to level the playing field for participants.

Since its inception, OneChronos has facilitated over $500 billion in institutional securities transactions. The company reported an average daily trading volume exceeding $4.5 billion in November 2024, solidifying its position as one of the fastest-growing off-exchange U.S. equities trading venues. This rapid adoption is attributed to its ability to reduce market impact and information leakage, allowing institutional clients to execute larger trades with greater efficiency.

Co-founders Kelly Littlepage and Steven Johnson embarked on this venture after a decade of research and six years of development, drawing on their backgrounds from institutions like Caltech and experience in hedge funds. Their vision was to build a system that fundamentally addresses the inefficiencies in how trading venues match orders. According to the tweet from Y Combinator, they aimed to convince Wall Street to "embrace a radically better way to trade."

To support its ambitious growth, OneChronos secured $32 million in expansion capital in November 2024, led by Addition, bringing its total funding to $82 million. The company plans to extend its "Smart Market" technology beyond U.S. equities, with regulatory applications underway to launch in the European Union and the UK by mid-2025. Additionally, OneChronos intends to expand into new asset classes such as fixed income and foreign exchange, with spot FX expected to launch by early next year.