FIA has named BridgePort its 2026 Innovator of the Year. The award goes to the winner of the pitch competition in FIA's Innovators Pavilion at FIA Expo, the derivatives industry's largest conference and trade show. The Pavilion introduces new companies to trading firms, clearing brokers, exchanges and other firms active in the global derivatives markets.
See the full pitch we presented at FIA Expo (PDF)
Ten companies presented in this year's Pavilion. A panel of six judges with expertise in trading, technology, operations and risk management chose the winner based on presentations given in two stages on November 3 and 4.
This year's judges
David Allocco, Global Head of FCM, Wells Fargo Securities
Alex Gheorghe, Investor, Illuminate Financial Management
George Kalant, Head of Venture Capital, CTC
Jennifer McKellar, Senior Director, CME Ventures, CME Group
Scotte Moegling, Head of Business Development for Digital Assets, Virtu Financial
Keith Todd, Chairman, Sapphire Technology Group
“This industry was built by innovation, and the 10 startups in this year's Pavilion carry that tradition forward,” said Will Acworth, FIA's Global Head of Market Intelligence and coordinator of the Innovators Pavilion.
In its announcement, FIA said BridgePort “connects crypto exchanges, custodians and trading firms through a single coordination layer for off-exchange settlement,” so trading firms can trade across multiple venues “while their assets stay with a regulated custodian, without pre-funding exchange accounts.”
Why prefunding is the problem
Roughly $60 billion sits idle in prefunded accounts at crypto venues. A firm that trades on several venues funds each one separately, and every balance is exposed to the venue that holds it. That ties up capital, adds credit risk, and keeps money from moving to the next trade.
How BridgePort fixes it
With Off-Exchange Settlement, assets stay at the firm's custodian or bank. BridgePort allocates credit against them to exchanges, OTC desks and DeFi venues, and trades net and settle later, custodian to custodian. The network is neutral. We hold no assets, run no venue, and favor no custodian, and it works for crypto, fiat and tokenized real-world assets.
What's next
The network is live. In September we ran a prime brokerage workflow with Virtu Financial, SpotEx and Anchorage Digital, and we are adding custodians and venues now. Thank you to FIA and the judges. If your desk keeps capital prefunded across venues, talk to us.
About BridgePort
BridgePort is middleware for connected collateral. Trading firms use it to trade on any venue while their assets stay at their custodian, without prefunding.