Trading & Options · Profile from Trading and Options Research Companion
XTX Markets
The London electronic market maker that Alex Gerko, a Moscow-trained mathematician who had worked at Deutsche Bank and the quant fund GSA Capital, founded in January 2015 and built into one of the world's largest non-bank liquidity providers with no human traders in the loop — machine-learning price forecasts on over 53,000 instruments, about 300 employees, a 25,000-GPU research cluster and a €1bn+ data centre in Kajaani, Finland (company website and release, 2025–26). It was the first non-bank in Euromoney's FX top ten (ninth, 3.87%, 2016), reportedly third by 2018 (7.36%) and the largest spot FX liquidity provider in 2019 (Euromoney via Wikipedia), and the largest systematic internaliser in European equities by 2019. Unlike its private US rivals, it files audited UK accounts: its intellectual-property company, XTX Markets Technologies Limited, reported profit of £1,688m on net revenue of £3,022m in 2025 (2024: £1,250m on £2,043m), and its UK trading group a further £911m of net trading revenue; the Cayman-incorporated, UK-tax-resident parent received £3,438m of dividends from subsidiaries in 2025 (Companies House, GBP). Gerko owns ~75% (FT, reported) and was named Britain's biggest taxpayer (£664.5m, Sunday Times Tax List, Jan 2024). The lesson: model-driven market making at scale, where compute is the capital expenditure and the edge is forecasting, not speed alone.
At a glance
- Founded
- XTX Markets Limited incorporated 30 Jan 2015 (Companies House 09415174); founded by Alex Gerko as a spin-off of GSA Capital (Wikipedia)
- Headquarters
- London (R7 building, King's Cross, since Jan 2018); offices including New York, Paris (XTX Markets SAS, the post-Brexit EU base, Oct 2018), Singapore (FX pricing engine, 2018) (Wikipedia); data centre under construction in Kajaani, Finland
- Ownership / structure
- Private. Ultimate parent XTX Topco Limited (Cayman Islands, UK tax resident) → XTX Holdings Limited (Cayman, UK tax resident) → XTX Holdings (UK) Limited (trading sub-group: XTX Markets Limited and XTX Markets Trading Limited, both FCA-authorised MIFIDPRU Class 2 firms) and XTX Markets Technologies Limited (IP and services); ultimate controlling party Alex Gerko (Companies House filings) ; Gerko ~75% (FT, 2023–24, via Wikipedia)
- Leadership (2026)
- Alex Gerko, founder and CEO; Zar Amrolia, director and co-CEO (filings list Zarthustra Jal Amrolia as director; co-CEO title from press — verify); Hans Buehler, co-CEO, joined the board 31 Mar 2023, left 30 Jun 2025 (Companies House; fxnewsgroup Jul 2025)
- Business lines
- Proprietary electronic market making in FX (spot, metals), European and US equities (systematic internaliser and exchange trading), fixed income, commodities and crypto; trades "on exchanges and alternative trading venues" and offers "liquidity directly to clients" (website); XTX Ventures (Nov 2020); XTY Labs machine-learning division in New York (22 Feb 2024, PR Newswire)
- Scale (dated)
- Website (2026): forecasts for 53,000+ instruments; ~$250bn traded a day; 35 countries; 300 employees; 25,000+ GPUs; 1 exabyte+ storage. Audited accounts (GBP): see section 4
- Regulators
- UK FCA (authorised Jul 2016); US SEC/FINRA (XTX Markets LLC broker-dealer registered Dec 2017; XTX Execution Services LLC launched XTX Direct Feb 2021); French ACPR/AMF for the Paris entity (verify); MAS in Singapore (Wikipedia)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Spin-out from GSA (2015); Euromoney FX top ten as a non-bank (2016–19); European equities systematic internaliser and US expansion (2018–19); philanthropy and the UK tax bill (2020–26) with Gerko's lost GSA tax case (2024); the group restructuring and what the accounts show (2020–21); AI-for-maths and ventures (2020–26); the profit surge 2022–25; the Kajaani data centre (2025–26)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2015
Spin Out from GSA Capital
Founding / hiring, spin-out or partner departure
2016
Euromoney FX Top Ten as a Non Bank
New strategy, product or market / market-structure bet (streaming FX liquidity directly to banks and platforms)
2018
European Equities Systematic Internaliser
Market-structure bet (MiFID II systematic internaliser) / new market (US equities)
2020
Philanthropy and Britains Biggest Taxpayer
Capital use (distribution and giving) / regulatory, enforcement or legal action (the founder's tax litigation)
2021
Group Restructuring and What the Accounts Show
Restructuring (separating intellectual property and staff from trading; splitting client and exchange trading)
2023
AIMO Prize AI for Maths and XTX Ventures
Technology or infrastructure bet (machine-learning research capacity) / investments (corporate venture) / capital use (prize and grant funding)
2025
Kajaani Data Centre and the GPU Cluster
Technology or infrastructure bet (owning a large-scale data centre for machine-learning compute)
2025
Profit Surge and Founder Dividends
Outcome / capital return (distribution of profits to the controlling shareholder)