Uncategorized

Note: This post by Terry Flanagan originally ran on Trader’s Magazine’s LinkedIn page on November 12, 2025

Maureen C Downs likens entrepreneurship to playing quarterback.

A QB needs to overcome a range of obstacles including erstwhile tacklers, ballhawks, and pass defenders to move the ball down the field.

An entrepreneur doesn’t risk physical harm, but there’s a range of challenges including business model, personnel, funding, technology, operations, competition, and market conditions — any of which can result in the equivalent of a drive-killing quarterback sack or turnover.

Maureen considers her entrepreneurial ‘superpower’ to be the ability to deal with the multitude of issues that come at a founder every day, while still being able to see down the field, ie where the receivers are going and where the gaps in the defense are. The focus stays on getting into the end zone, even if it’s not known exactly how or when that will happen.

Maureen is a three-time capital markets entrepreneur with her husband Jim Downs. She co-founded Downs Capital, a proprietary trading firm that worked on the CBOE and CBOT from 1986 through 1995, and Connamara in 1998. EP3 by Connamara Technologies, an exchange platform and order matching engine, was conceived and incubated at Connamara and was spun off as a separate company in 2022.

Connamara Technologies has 13 employees and is self-funded. The firm has managed to carve out a niche in the exchange space despite going up against much larger competitors.

Of course, no entrepreneurship journey is all peaches and cream, and Maureen is candid in Monday-morning quarterbacking herself on certain decisions. Specifically, she said Connamara Technologies should have committed more capital to sales, marketing and branding early on, and the firm also should have added staff quicker to accommodate the growth of the business.

Both aspects underscore that starting a business is more about playing offense than defense.

Advanced academic degrees and Ivy League connections can help an entrepreneur raise capital, but Maureen said being smart hardly guarantees a successful business. Success comes down to execution, which requires a different set of skills such as guts, instinct and perseverance.

In fact, Maureen believes intelligence can even be a detriment to entrepreneurship — if that brainpower goes toward analyzing and overanalyzing every facet of every decision.

“The reality is, in an entrepreneurial business there are so many issues in front of you that you just don’t have the luxury of time and money to try to get the right answer on everything. You get to the best answer you can with the best information you have today, and move forward.”

(This is the seventh of a series of profiles of capital markets business founders in honor of National Entrepreneurship Month.)

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tradersmagazine_maureen-c-downs-likens-entrepreneurship-to-activity-7394084759234158593-s5Oh?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAADZqWV4BPjs6O8g8hV3SOs9yZTUBrlrHX3s

Jim And Maureen Downs, Architects Who Foresaw The Rise Of Prediction Markets

“For decades, the Downses have been market architects, watching technology fundamentally reshape trading, from the grain pits of the Chicago Board of Trade to the options floor of the CBOE. They didn’t just foresee the rise of prediction exchanges; they built the engine making the challenge possible, and they believe this disruption is inevitable, and likely a good development for retail customers of sportsbooks and exchanges.” Read more at InGame.com

November 1, 2025

As part of the TabbFORUM 40 2025, Jim Downs was listed under “10 More to Watch on the leading edge of change and innovation in financial markets.” Read the story below.

Introducing the 2025 TabbFORUM 40 Innovators in Financial Markets

October 29, 2025

Via PR Newswire: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/architect-financial-technologies-launches-ax-global-regulated-exchange-for-perpetual-futures-on-traditional-financial-assets-302597794.html

CHICAGO, Oct. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Architect Financial Technologies Inc. (“Architect” or “The Company”) announces the launch of AX, the first regulated exchange for trading perpetual futures on traditional underlying asset classes. AX offers novel perpetual contracts on foreign currencies, interest rates, single stocks, stock indexes, metals, energy, and other commodities.

AX is operated by the Company’s Bermuda-based affiliate Architect Bermuda Ltd. (“Architect Bermuda”), regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (“BMA”). Architect Bermuda holds dual licenses under the BMA’s Investment Business Act and Digital Asset Business Act, providing AX customers the security of transacting under a robust and comprehensive regulatory regime.

AX’s perpetual futures contracts are standardized, centrally cleared, and matched on anonymous central limit order books. Backed by first-in-class matching engine technology built by Connamara Technologies, the exchange offers an advanced web-based user interface and low-latency APIs, with open source SDKs available in multiple programming languages. AX customers will be able to use both traditional fiat currency and digital asset stablecoins as collateral to meet margin requirements.

AX’s launch under Architect Bermuda’s regulatory licensure is a critical step forward for global derivatives trading, bringing key innovations in digital asset products to vast, comprehensively-regulated traditional financial markets. AX combines the security, transparency, and regulatory supervision of traditional futures markets with the capital efficiency, operational simplicity, and flexibility of digital asset non-expiring perpetual contracts. Offering instruments optimized for twenty-first-century market structure, AX aims to catalyze a new era in futures trading across the currencies, equities, credit, commodities, and insurance sectors.

AX is currently available to institutions — including hedge funds, market makers, family offices, asset managers, insurance and reinsurance companies, and lenders — in eligible jurisdictions. To learn more about AX and onboard to the exchange, visit https://architect.exchange or contact [email protected]. Sophisticated individual traders interested in trading on AX can access the waitlist at https://architect.exchange.

About Architect

Architect Financial Technologies Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides institutional trading technology, US electronic brokerage services, and a global perpetual futures exchange. Architect Securities LLC is a FINRA-registered Introducing Broker-Dealer for SEC-regulated securities and security derivatives. Architect Financial Derivatives LLC is an NFA-registered Independent Introducing Broker for CFTC-regulated derivatives. Architect Bermuda Ltd. is regulated under the Bermuda Monetary Authority and operates AX, a multi-asset perpetual futures exchange for institutional customers.

To learn more, please visit https://architect.exchange and https://architect.co.

This communication is for informational purposes only, and does not constitute a recommendation, investment, or legal advice. Readers should consult their investment, fiduciary, and/or legal advisors for guidance in making investment or business decisions.

SOURCE Architect Financial Technologies Inc

October 21, 2025

Via CNBC: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/architect-financial-technologies-launches-ax-global-regulated-exchange-for-perpetual-futures-on-traditional-financial-assets-302597794.html

DraftKings is acquiring predictions platform Railbird as it prepares to launch a mobile platform in the coming months to be called DraftKings Predictions.

Railbird is licensed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to offer an event contracts exchange. DraftKings targeted the company for its team and proprietary technology. 

“We are excited about the additional opportunity that prediction markets could represent for our business,” DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said in a statement to CNBC. “We believe that Railbird’s team and platform—combined with DraftKings’ scale, trusted brand, and proven expertise in mobile-first products—positions us to win in this incremental space.”

Predictions markets allow customers to trade on the outcomes of various events in the worlds of finance, culture and entertainment, which will allow DraftKings to expand beyond its sports betting business. The markets on election outcomes and sports are the most controversial.  

Dozens of states, their gaming regulators and tribes are suing or taking other actions to try to prohibit companies from offering trades based on sporting events, because they see it as unlicensed gambling.  

Nevada is among the states warning that companies risk losing their gambling licenses if they offer sports in their prediction markets.

If DraftKings offers sports events contracts, it’s likely to focus only on states that don’t offer licensed sports betting, like California and Texas, to avoid running afoul of the states where it offers sports betting.  Additionally, technology exists to prevent those sports trades from being available on tribal lands.  

DraftKings also may offer more advanced “know your customer” guardrails, a term commonly used to reference identity verification, given its experience in the regulated gambling market.  

September 23, 2025

Via CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/23/startup-zerohash-raises-104million-morgan-stanley-sofi-apollo.html

Crypto infrastructure startup Zerohash has raised $104 million in funding with backing from financial firms including Morgan Stanley and SoFi, CNBC has learned.

The Series D round was led by Interactive Brokers, the global automated trading firm, and includes strategic investors who are also clients of Zerohash, founder and CEO Edward Woodford told CNBC in an interview. The company is valued at $1 billion, he said.

“We wanted to raise from the largest, most trusted brands in the world and have that be the bridge into this new technology,” he said.

Funds managed by Apollo also participated in the round, according to Zerohash.

The startup is among a wave of firms, both publicly traded and privately held, taking advantage of the more favorable regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies under President Donald Trump.

After Trump took office this year, the government flipped from being highly skeptical of crypto under former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler to embracing it as a nascent technology.

Suddenly, the CEOs of financial firms including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America were expressing confidence that they would get involved. SoFi CEO Anthony Noto told CNBC in April that he was ready to bring crypto trading back after the regulatory shift.

Founded in 2017, Zerohash provides banks and fintech firms with the ability to offer blockchain-based products in three major areas: crypto trading, stablecoins and tokenization, according to Woodford.

“Part of this raise is obviously accelerating [adoption] across all three of those verticals with a range of customers who are also investors,” he said.

Interactive Brokers already uses Zerohash for crypto trading and custody and will launch a stablecoin product with the firm, Woodford said.

While Woodford said he couldn’t comment on whether Morgan Stanley and SoFi were also clients, he suggested announcements will be coming. Spokespeople for Morgan Stanley and SoFi declined to comment.

“These groups aren’t VCs,” Woodford said. “You can assume that there’s obviously a couple of announcements coming down the road with these other investors.”

Later Tuesday, Morgan Stanley said in a memo obtained by CNBC that it was close to offering crypto trading though its E-Trade division with the help of Zerohash.

September 10, 2025

Via Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/blockchain-lender-figure-raises-7875-million-us-ipo-2025-09-11/

Sept 10 (Reuters) – Stablecoin issuer Figure Technology, along with some of its existing investors, raised $787.5 million in a U.S. initial public offering on Wednesday, becoming the latest crypto firm to tap public markets as digital assets gain mainstream acceptance.

A string of regulatory wins under a pro-crypto White House, corporate treasury adoption and inflows from exchange-traded funds have spurred listings from the sector, which recently surpassed a market value of $4 trillion.

By Jim Downs, Co-Founder & CEO, Connamara Technologies

This piece originally ran in TRADERS MAGAZINE, August 15, 2025.

The last five years have seen the death of the all-night diner, the rise of bars with 9 PM last calls, and big box stores that don’t even rope-drop until brunch. But while the brick-and-mortar world has taken on the schedule of a senior center, the markets are just waking up. Traders don’t want downtime. They want uptime, all the time. Around-the-clock trading has taken off. And for all those once-weary business owners who swore there “weren’t enough hours in the day”? Good news: now there are.

The global economy is transforming overnight…every night. And to keep up, exchanges need to invest in the infrastructure that supports this massive shift in how (and when) we trade. Enter prediction markets, which have led the way toward normalizing 24/7/365 behaviors. Recently, Kalshi announced on its Discord channel that it would no longer close from 3-8 AM EST every day, and would be moving to 24/7 trading (save for two hours a week) on August 7.

The crypto boom of the last decade undoubtedly democratized and simplified trading for a natively global, first-time, or never-would-be audience. Along the way, many of the expectations and hangups of legacy markets evaporated, replaced by the always-on convenience of the internet. Crypto proved that trading and settlement can happen around the clock, and the technology behind it has only improved.

Where crypto paved the way, prediction markets picked up. Built on crypto infrastructure, these markets began with no suspensions for reporting or system maintenance. Unlike traditional capital markets, prediction markets aren’t bound by hyper-local assets or niche commodities. There’s no need to know how soybeans are grown in Indiana. Instead, users engage with global trends, reacting to the same publicly available information. Event contracts have a natural rhythm: spikes and lulls tied to real-world developments. A team’s best player is traded. A political scandal breaks. A climate report drops overnight in Europe. A Best Actress nominee’s old tweets resurface. Put another pot of coffee on.

Of course, this energy-drink-fueled, eyes-bloodshot trading style requires serious infrastructure. The exchange must be able to deploy and update its platform without suspending trading. To do that, prediction markets borrow from the playbooks of at-scale tech giants like Netflix, Meta, and Amazon. These companies use “rolling updates” and “blue-green deployments” to push changes seamlessly. You’ve never seen a “System Under Maintenance” screen while buying paper towels at 2 AM, and now you won’t while placing a trade, either.

The exchange must also be able to define a flexible “Trade Date” and trading day. That doesn’t always mean midnight to midnight. It might mean 4:30 PM to 4:30 PM, with trades between 4:30 PM and midnight assigned to the next day’s trade date. This is a structure often used for regulatory reporting or account settlement.

And finally, the infrastructure must support onboarding and funding around the clock. A user should be able to sign up, fund their account, and start trading within minutes, whether it’s noon or when the rooster crows. 

Prediction markets are thriving, particularly among Millennials and Gen Zers raised on the logic and dopamine loops of video games. But it’s not just about “gamifying” trading. It’s about rethinking access. These platforms succeed because they make trading easy to start, visually intuitive, instantly fundable, and nearly always available. The questions themselves are clear and accessible: Will the Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl? The probabilities are just as easy to grasp: 97% no, 3% yes. And the stakes can be low—users can participate with just $1, unlike traditional markets that often require hundreds or thousands just to get in the game.

April 15, 2025

Via GlobeNewsWire: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/04/15/3061806/0/en/Zero-Hash-Powered-2-Billion-in-Tokenized-Fund-Flows-within-the-Last-Four-Months.html

CHICAGO, April 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zero Hash, the leading infrastructure for stablecoins and crypto, today announced it powered more than $2 billion in tokenized fund flows within the last four months – fueling the rise of on-chain capital markets.

As adoption of tokenized funds accelerates, Zero Hash has emerged as a core enabler of the on-chain markets ecosystem. Its infrastructure underpins the payment rails for tokenized funds, including BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) in partnership with Securitize, as well as Franklin Templeton’s BENJI Token and the Hamilton Lane Private Infrastructure Fund (HLPIF) in partnership with Republic. Zero Hash facilitates compliant, real-time, 24/7/365 funding across seven stablecoins, underpinned by 22 blockchains.

Tokenization has the potential to fundamentally reshape financial markets by enabling instant, always-on settlement. Traditional payment systems, however, aren’t designed to support this level of availability and remain a bottleneck. Stablecoins unlock the true utility of tokenized assets, including stable instruments, enabling them to move as flexibly as the blockchain allows. Zero Hash payment rails are an essential tool for institutions looking to unlock blockchain technology and enable completely on-chain transactions, from asset origination to redemption, without having to manage the complexities of accepting stablecoins.

In his annual Letter to Investors, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink wrote, “Every stock, every bond, every fund – every asset – can be tokenized. If they are, it will revolutionize investing. Markets wouldn’t need to close. Transactions that currently take days would clear in seconds. And billions of dollars currently immobilized by settlement delays could be reinvested immediately back into the economy, generating more growth.” This vision is already in motion – and Zero Hash is powering the payment rails underpinning tokenized assets.

“Tokenized finance is no longer theoretical. Institutions are deploying real capital to tokenization and need the payment infrastructure to match,” said Edward Woodford, CEO and Founder of Zero Hash. “Our rails enable fully on-chain transactions end-to-end, real-time, 24/7/365. Zero Hash abstracts the blockchain complexity and meets the regulatory standards required by the largest financial firms.”

Zero Hash’s infrastructure is trusted by global businesses that require enterprise-grade stablecoin payment rails. This is because Zero Hash addresses two of the most pressing barriers to institutional adoption: regulatory compliance around source-of-funds transparency and technical complexity. Zero Hash’s abstracts away the complexity of multi-chain, multi-stable operations – allowing issuers to operate with the simplicity of account-to-account transfers, while their infrastructure handles the complexities behind the scenes.

In less than four months, Zero Hash has facilitated over $2 billion in tokenized funding through partners including Securitize, Franklin Templeton, and Republic. The broader market reflects that momentum. The tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market grew ~85% year-over-year to hit $15.2 billion by the end of 2024. In the first quarter of 2025, another $5.44 billion was added – bringing total RWA value on-chain to $20.64 billion, as of April 11th (Source: rwa.xyz). Zero Hash’s on-ramped approximately 35% of all on-chain RWAs in Q1, solidifying its position as a foundational layer in the evolving capital markets stack.

As institutional adoption deepens, Zero Hash continues to serve as the stablecoin infrastructure partner of choice for asset managers and platforms driving the future of financial services.

About Zero Hash
Zero Hash is the leading infrastructure provider for crypto, stablecoin, and tokenized asset settlement. Its embeddable, API-first platform enables regulated money movement across fiat, crypto, and stable instruments. Clients use Zero Hash to build solutions for cross-border payments, commerce, trading, remittance, payroll, tokenization, wallets, on/off-ramps, and more.

Zero Hash Holdings is backed by investors, including Point72 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and NYCA.

Zero Hash Trust Company LLC has been approved by the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks as a non-depository trust company.

Zero Hash LLC is a FinCen-registered Money Service Business and a regulated Money Transmitter that can operate in 51 U.S. jurisdictions. Zero Hash LLC and Zero Hash Liquidity Services LLC are licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services. In Canada, Zero Hash LLC is registered as a Money Service Business with FINTRAC.

Zero Hash Australia Pty Ltd. is registered with AUSTRAC as a Digital Currency Exchange Provider, with DCE registered provider number DCE100804170-001. Zero Hash Australia Pty Ltd. is registered on the New Zealand register of financial service providers, with Financial Service Provider (FSP) number FSP1004503. Zero Hash Europe B.V. is registered as a Virtual Asset Services Provider (VASP) by the Dutch Central Bank (Relation number: R193684). Zero Hash Europe Sp. Zoo is registered as a VASP by the Tax Administration Chamber of Poland in Katowice (Registration number RDWW – 1212).

Whether you are establishing a new exchange or upgrading your legacy exchange systems, making informed decisions is crucial to your success.