Taiwan Quantitative Team Kronos Research's Centralized Exchange WooX Transfers Ownership to BitMart

Taiwanese quantitative trading team Kronos Research (Qifang) incubated the centralized exchange WooX, which recently quietly transferred ownership to BitMart. Chain News has learned industry sources indicate that the deal has been completed, and almost all executives have left. However, BitMart’s goal is not to develop the Taiwanese market through WooX as rumors suggest, but rather to acquire regulatory licenses for WooX in certain countries.

Kronos Research (Qifang Limited) was established in 2018, headquartered in Xinyi District, Taipei City, claiming to be one of the top five crypto quantitative funds globally. It has incubated flagship liquidity solutions such as Woo Network, WooX, WooFi, and Orderly, with WooX as a centralized exchange and WooFi as an on-chain DeFi-style exchange.

WooX’s investors are impressive, including market makers and quantitative firms such as Wintermute, Presto, Riverside Hedge, QCP Capital, Antalpha, Amber Group. Notable venture capital firms include Fenbushi Capital, IOSG Ventures, and the now-bankrupt Three Arrows Capital. The exchange investors include YZi Labs, Cryptocom Capital, MEXC Ventures, Gate Ventures, LBank Labs, and Bitmart.

Since WooX is essentially an offshore exchange, not a compliant domestic exchange like BitoPro or MAX that can offer fiat trading, it announced at the end of 2024 that it would cease providing services to Taiwanese users.

An industry insider told Chain News that WooX platform has quietly sold its ownership to BitMart, with almost all executives leaving. The insider speculates that the reason behind this is that BitMart still aims to develop the Taiwanese market.

However, Chain News confirmed with a former WooX executive that WooX was indeed transferred to BitMart. He believes that BitMart’s acquisition target is WooX’s regulatory licenses in certain countries, rather than the Taiwanese market that WooX abandoned three years ago.

This article about the transfer of the centralized exchange WooX under Taiwan’s quantitative team Kronos Research to BitMart first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.