Virtu Financial, Inc. (VIRT) Business
This page reproduces the company's own Item 1 Business text from the linked SEC filing. It is filer text, not grepcent analysis, scoring, or investment advice.
Informational only - not investment advice. See Disclaimer.
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
We are a leading financial firm that leverages cutting edge technology to deliver liquidity to the global markets and innovative, transparent trading solutions to our clients. Leveraging our global market structure expertise and scaled, multi-asset infrastructure, we provide our clients a robust product suite including offerings in execution, liquidity sourcing, analytics and broker-neutral, multi-dealer platforms in workflow technology. Our product offerings allow our clients to trade on hundreds of venues across over 50 countries and in multiple asset classes, including global equities, Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”), options, foreign exchange, futures, fixed income, cryptocurrencies, and myriad other commodities. Our integrated, multi-asset analytics platform provides a range of pre- and post-trade services, data products and compliance tools that our clients rely upon to invest, trade and manage risk across global markets. We believe that our broad diversification, in combination with our proprietary technology platform and low-cost structure, gives us the scale necessary to grow our business around the globe as we service clients and facilitate risk transfer between global capital markets participants by providing liquidity, while at the same time earning attractive margins and returns.
Technology and operational efficiency are at the core of our business, and our focus on market making and order routing technology is a key element of our success. We have developed a proprietary, multi‑asset, multi-currency technology platform that is highly reliable, scalable and modular, and we integrate directly with exchanges, liquidity centers, and our clients. Our market data, order routing, transaction processing, risk management and market surveillance technology modules manage our market making and institutional agency activities in an efficient manner that enables us to scale our activities globally, across additional securities and other financial instruments and asset classes, without significant incremental costs or third-party licensing or processing fees.
We believe that technology-enabled market makers like Virtu serve an important role in maintaining and improving the overall health and efficiency of the global capital markets by providing market participants with an efficient means to transfer risk and analyze the quality of execution. We believe that market participants benefit from the increased liquidity, lower overall trading costs and execution transparency that Virtu provides.
Our execution services and client solutions products are designed to be transparent, because we believe transparency makes markets more efficient and helps investors make better, more informed decisions. We use the latest technology to create and deliver liquidity to global markets and innovative trading solutions and analytics tools to our clients. We interact directly
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with hundreds of retail brokers, Registered Investment Advisors, private client networks, sell-side brokers, and buy-side institutions.
We have two operating segments: Market Making and Execution Services, and one non-operating segment: Corporate. Our management allocates resources, assesses performance and manages our business according to these segments.
We primarily conduct our Americas equities business through our SEC registered broker‑dealer, Virtu Americas LLC (“VAL”). We are registered with the Central Bank of Ireland (“CBI”) and the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) in the UK for our European trading, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (“CIRO”) and the Ontario Securities Commission for our Canadian trading, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”), Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong (“SFC”), and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (“ASIC”) for our Asia-Pacific (“APAC”) trading. We are registered as a market maker or liquidity provider and/or enter into direct obligations to provide liquidity on nearly every exchange or venue that offers such programs. We engage regularly with regulators around the world on issues affecting electronic trading and other matters that may affect our business and the operation of the financial markets and advocate for increased transparency. In the U.S., we conduct our business from our headquarters in New York City (NY) and our offices in Boston (MA), Austin (TX), Chicago (IL), Short Hills (NJ), Rye Brook (NY), and Palm Beach Gardens (FL). Abroad, we conduct our business through trading centers located in London, Dublin, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, Toronto, and Sydney.
Business Segments
Market Making
Our Market Making segment principally consists of market making in the cash, futures, and options markets across global equities, fixed income, currencies, cryptocurrencies, and commodities. As a leading, low‑cost market maker dedicated to improving efficiency and providing liquidity across multiple asset classes and geographies, we aim to provide critical market functionality and robust price competition in the securities and other financial instruments in which we provide liquidity. The scale and diversity of our market making activities provide added liquidity and transparency to the financial markets, which we believe are necessary and valuable components to the efficient functioning of markets and benefit all market participants. We support transparent and efficient, technologically advanced marketplaces, and advocate for legislation and regulation that promotes fair and transparent access to the financial markets.
As a market maker, we commit capital on a principal basis by offering to buy securities from, or sell securities to, broker dealers, banks and institutions. We engage in principal trading in the Market Making segment direct to clients as well as on exchanges, Alternative Trading Systems (“ATSs”) and other market centers. As a complement to electronic market making, our cash trading business handles specialized orders and transacts on the OTC Link ATS operated by OTC Markets Group Inc.
We make markets in a number of different asset classes, which are discussed in more detail below. We register as market makers and liquidity providers where available and support affirmative market making obligations.
We provide competitive and deep liquidity that helps to create more efficient markets around the world. We stand ready, at any time, to buy or sell a broad range of securities and other financial instruments, and we generate revenue by buying and selling large volumes of securities and other financial instruments while earning small bid/ask spreads.
We believe the overall level of volumes and realized volatility as well as the attractiveness of the order flow we interact with and the level of retail participation in the various markets we serve have the greatest impact on our businesses. Increases in market volatility can cause bid/ask spreads to temporarily widen as market participants are more willing to transact immediately and as a result market makers’ capture rate per notional amount transacted increases.
Technology is at the core of our business. Our team of in-house software engineers develops our software and applications, and we utilize optimized infrastructure to integrate directly with the exchanges and other trading venues on which we provide liquidity. Our focus on technology and our ability to leverage our technology enables us to be one of the lowest cost providers of liquidity to the global electronic trading marketplace.
Leveraging the scalability and low costs of our platform, we are able to test and rapidly deploy new liquidity provisioning strategies, expand to new securities, asset classes and geographies and increase transaction volumes at little incremental cost. These efficiencies are central to our ability to deliver consistently positive Adjusted Net Trading Income (as defined below) as our profitability per trade and per instrument is not significant, particularly in U.S. equities.
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Our transaction processing is automated over the full life cycle of a trade. Our market making platform generates and disseminates continuous bid and offer quotes. At the moment when a trade is executed, our systems capture and deliver this information back to the source, in most cases within a fraction of a second, and the trade record is written into our clearing system, where it flows through a chain of control accounts that allow us to automatically and efficiently reconcile trades, positions and payments until the final settlement occurs.
We have built and continuously refine our automated and integrated, real time systems for global trading, risk management, clearing and cash management, among other purposes. We have also assembled a proprietary connectivity network between us and exchanges around the world. Efficiency and speed in performing prescribed functions are always crucial requirements for our systems, and generally, we focus on opportunities in markets that are sufficiently advanced to allow the seamless deployment of our automated strategies, risk management system and core technology.
Our core operations team across our offices in North America, APAC and Europe monitors our systems 24 hours a day, five days a week. This function provides coverage for our full technology platform, including our market data, order routing, transaction processing, and risk management technology modules.
Clients and Products
We offer direct-to-client market making services across multiple asset classes primarily to sell-side clients including global, national and regional broker dealers and banks as well as buy-side clients comprising, among others, mutual funds, pension plans, plan sponsors, hedge funds, trusts and endowments in North America, Europe and Asia.
We generally compete based on execution quality, market coverage, and client service. In direct-to-client electronic market making in U.S. equities, execution quality is generally measured based on factors that include speed of execution, fulfillment rates, opportunity and amounts of price improvement, using metrics defined in SEC Rule 605. In other asset classes, metrics for execution quality are not prescribed by applicable regulation, and in many cases, are client defined.
We continually work to provide clients with high quality, low-cost trade executions that enable them to satisfy their fiduciary obligation to seek the best execution on behalf of their customer. We continually refine our automated order routing models so that we may remain competitive.
Global Equities
We trade over 50,000 listed and over-the-counter (“OTC”) securities including, among others, equity related futures and exchange traded products (“ETPs”), on seventeen U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) registered exchanges and other market centers around the world, including the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”), the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”), NYSE Arca, Cboe BATS, Chicago Stock Exchange, the Members Exchange (“MEMX”), the TSX in Canada, Bovespa in Brazil and BMV in Mexico, as well as other ATSs and more than 150 private liquidity pools.
Our strategy globally is to utilize high speed, efficient connections to all of the registered exchanges and market centers, including the London Stock Exchange, Cboe Europe Equities, Euronext, Six Swiss Exchange, Australian Securities Exchange, Tokyo Stock Exchange and Singapore Exchange, as well as other trading venues and additional pools of liquidity to which we can gain access either directly or through a broker.
As ETPs and other similar products, including Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”), have proliferated both domestically and internationally, demand has increased for trading the underlying assets or hedging such products. Our technology has enabled us to expand into providing liquidity to this growing area by making markets across these assets in a variety of trading venues globally. We are authorized participants, and can create and/or redeem ETPs.
Global Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (“FICC”), Options, and Other
Our Fixed Income market making includes our activity in U.S. Treasury securities and other sovereign debt, corporate bonds, and other debt instruments. We trade these products on a variety of specialized exchanges, direct to counterparties, and other trading venues, including BrokerTec, eSpeed, DealerWeb, Bloomberg, Tradeweb, MarketAxess, and BGC’s Fenics UST.
Our Currencies market making, including spot, futures and forwards, comprises our activity in over 50 currency pairs, including deliverable, non-deliverable, fiat, and digital currencies, across dozens of venues and direct to counterparties. We are a leading participant in the major foreign exchange venues, including LSEG, Currenex, Cboe FX, and CME.
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Our Commodities market making takes place on the CME, ICE, and Nasdaq Futures in crude oil, natural gas, heating oil, and gasoline futures. We also actively trade precious metals, including gold, silver, platinum and palladium, as well as base metals such as aluminum and copper. We trade over 100 commodity products.
Our Options and Other market making includes our activity on all of the U.S. options exchanges of which we are a member (i.e., Cboe, ISE, and NYSE Arca) and on the U.S. futures exchanges, as well as our activity in cryptocurrencies. Our cryptocurrency market making includes spot, perpetuals, futures, and ETFs and takes place across over 75 venues and exchanges.
Execution Services
We offer agency execution services and trading venues that provide transparent trading in global equities, ETFs, fixed income, currencies, and commodities to institutions, banks and broker dealers. We generally earn commissions when transacting as an agent for our clients. Within the Execution Services segment, we offer the following categories of products and services:
•Agency-based, execution-only trading, done through a variety of access points including:
◦algorithmic trading and order routing;
◦institutional sales traders who offer portfolio trading and single stock sales trading providing execution expertise for program, block and riskless principal trades in global equities and ETFs; and
◦matching of client conditional orders via POSIT Alert and in our ATSs, including Virtu MatchIt and POSIT.
•Workflow Technology, and our integrated, broker-neutral trading tools delivered across the globe including order and execution management systems and order management software applications and network connectivity; and
•Trading Analytics, including
◦tools enabling portfolio managers and traders to improve pre-trade and real-time execution performance and post-trade analysis;
◦portfolio construction and optimization decisions; and
◦securities valuation.
Clients and Products
We offer agency execution services across multiple asset classes to buy-side clients including mutual funds, pension plans, plan sponsors, hedge funds, trusts and endowments and sell-side clients including global, national and regional broker dealers and banks in North America, Europe and Asia. In 2025, our Execution Services segment did not have any client that accounted for more than 10% of our total commissions earned.
Clients may access a broad range of products and services that includes electronic execution services in global equities via algorithmic trading, order routing and an execution management system (“EMS”) as well as internal crossing through our registered ATSs. Our ATSs provide clients with important sources of non-displayed liquidity. We also offer clients voice access to global markets including sales and trading for equities, ETFs and options. Certain broker-dealer affiliates also engage in foreign exchange trading to facilitate equity trades by clients in different currencies as well as other client foreign exchange trades unrelated to equity trades. We handle large complex trades, accessing liquidity from our order flow and other sources. We provide soft dollar and commission recapture programs.
In this segment, we generally compete on trading technology, execution performance, costs, client service, market coverage, liquidity, platform capabilities and anonymity. We draw on in-house developed trading technologies to meet client criteria for execution quality and for managing trading costs. As a result, we are able to attract a diverse array of clients in terms of strategy, size and style. We also provide algorithmic trading and order routing that combine technology, access to our differentiated liquidity and support from experienced professionals to help clients execute trades. The segment also includes the results of our capital markets business, in which we act as an agent for issuers in connection with at-the-market offerings and buyback programs.
Agency-based, Execution-only Trading
Our clients may access a broad range of products and services that includes electronic execution services in global equities via algorithmic trading, order routing and an EMS as well as internal crossing through our registered ATSs. Our algorithms and order routers help portfolio managers and traders to trade orders quickly, comprehensively and cost‑efficiently
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from our EMS or our Order Management System (“OMS”) and most third‑party trading platforms. Our institutional sales traders offer portfolio trading and single stock sales trading which provides execution expertise for program, block and riskless principal trades in global equities and ETFs.
We provide matching of client orders in our ATSs, including Virtu MatchIt, POSIT ATS, and POSIT MTF. MatchIt provides two crossing sessions, a Main Session and a Conditional Session. The Main Session provides continuous crossing with price/time priority and is available to our subsidiaries and external subscribers. The Conditional Session accepts conditional orders with price/size priority, and is only available to our subsidiaries. POSIT provides continuous crossing of non‑displayed (or dark) equity orders and price improvement opportunities within the published best bid and offer price. In the U.S., POSIT Alert is a block crossing mechanism within POSIT ATS. POSIT Alert unites liquidity sourced directly from trader OMSs with conditional orders from electronic participants for matching using a conditional order process. In addition, POSIT MTF Auction provides frequent batch auctions which display indicative size/price prior to trade execution.
Workflow Technology
Our workflow technology tools are designed to meet the needs of a broad range of trading styles. As an example, Triton Valor, the most recent release of our multi‑asset and broker‑neutral Triton EMS, helps to bring integrated execution and analytical tools to the user’s desktop, including the Algo Wheel, an algorithmic way for a portfolio manager to intelligently allocate volume between different providers. Triton supports global list‑based and single‑stock trading, as well as futures and options capabilities and includes ITG Net, a fully integrated and supported financial services communications network. Triton also provides traders with access to scalable, low‑latency, multi‑asset trading opportunities. Our OMS combines portfolio management, compliance functionality, and a fully integrated and supported financial services communications network (ITG Net) with a consolidated, outsourced service for global trade matching and settlement that provides connectivity to the industry’s post‑trade utilities, as well as support for multiple, flexible settlement communication methods and a real‑time process monitor.
ITG Net is our global financial communications network that provides reliable and fully-supported connectivity between buy‑side and sell‑side firms for multi‑asset order routing and indication‑of‑interest messages with Virtu and third‑party trading platforms. ITG Net supports approximately 9,000 global billable connections to more than 600 unique execution destinations worldwide. ITG Net also integrates the trading products of third‑party brokers and ATSs into our OMS and EMS platforms.
We offer administration and consolidation of client commission arrangements across a wide range of our clients’ preferred brokerage and research providers through Commission Manager, a robust, multi‑asset, web‑based commission management portal, and Budget Tracker, which enables asset managers to set research allocations and create and track budgets for their end clients. We also offer a comprehensive research payment account solution, enabling clients to unbundle research and execution payments to comply with the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (“MiFID”) II regulations.
Analytics
Our trading analytics suite helps enable portfolio managers and traders to analyze execution performance before the trade happens (pre‑trade) and during trading (real‑time) by providing trading analytics and risk models that help them perform predictive analysis, manage risk, change strategy and reduce trading costs. Trading costs are affected by multiple factors, such as execution strategies, time horizon, volatility, spread, volume and order size. Our trading analytics suite is designed to gauge the effects of these factors and aid in the understanding of the trade‑off between market impact and opportunity cost. For example, our transaction cost analysis (“TCA”) offers measurement and reporting capabilities to analyze costs and performance across the trading continuum. TCA assesses trading performance and implicit costs under various market conditions so users can adjust strategies and potentially reduce costs and boost investment performance. TCA is also available for foreign exchange transactions (FX TCA) and for corporate and sovereign bond trading (FI TCA).
Corporate
Our Corporate segment contains investments principally in strategic financial services-oriented opportunities and maintains corporate overhead expenses and all other income and expenses that are not attributable to our operating segments.
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Risk Management
We are acutely focused on risk management. Our market making activities involve taking on risk positions and our execution services business involves providing trading, clearing and related services on behalf of customers and clients. These activities expose us to market, counterparty, operational, and regulatory risk. We aim to mitigate these risks through prudent risk management practices.
We have senior risk personnel who report independently into the Board Risk Committee. We also have a Risk Advisory Committee, which includes key personnel from each of our regions globally and is comprised of our senior risk personnel, members of our senior management team, senior technologists and traders, and certain other senior officers. Our Risk Advisory Committee provides advice to our senior management team in connection with our key risk management policies, procedures and risk limits. Our Board of Directors, through the Board Risk Committee, is periodically apprised of risk events, risk profiles, trends and the activities of our Risk Advisory Committee, including our risk management policies, procedures and controls.
Our approach to managing risk includes the following practices:
•Pre-Trade Risk Controls. Messages that leave our trading environment must first pass through a series of preset risk controls, which are intended to minimize the likelihood of unintended activities by our algorithms. Certain risk controls, when triggered, result in a strategy lockdown, which requires a manual reset in order to restart the strategy.
•Model Restrictions. Trading models have limits in place which restrict individual position sizes, sector exposures and imbalanced portfolios with significant directional risks. Trading strategies are designed to automatically reduce exposures when limits are reached. The models are monitored continuously by the trading team and the risk managers.
•Aggregate Exposure Monitoring. Pursuant to our risk management policies, our automated management information systems monitor in real‑time and generate reports on daily and periodic bases. Exposures monitored include:
◦Risk Profiles
◦Statistical Risk Measures including Value at Risk (“VaR”), and Equity Betas
◦Stress and Scenario analysis
◦Concentration measures
◦Profit and Loss analysis
◦Trading performance reports
•Our trading assets and liabilities are marked‑to‑market daily for financial reporting purposes by reference to official exchange prices, and they are re‑valued continuously throughout the trading day for risk management and asset/liability management purposes.
•Operational Controls. We have a series of automated controls over our business. Key automated controls include:
◦Our technical operations system continuously monitors our network and the proper functioning of each of our trading centers around the world;
◦Our market making system continuously evaluates the listed securities and other financial products in which we provide bid and offer quotes and changes its bids and offers to reflect changes in market conditions. The latency of communicating with exchanges and market centers is reduced through continuous software and network engineering innovation, allowing us to achieve real‑time controls over market exposure. We connect
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to exchanges and other electronic venues through a network of co‑location facilities around the world that are monitored 24 hours a day, five days a week, by our staff of experienced network professionals;
◦Our clearing system captures trades in real-time and performs automated reconciliations of trades and positions, corporate action processing, options exercises, securities lending and inventory management, allowing us to effectively manage operational risk; and
◦Software developed to support our market making systems performs daily profit and loss and position reconciliations.
Additionally, we conduct after event reviews where operational issues are evaluated and risk mitigations are identified and subsequently implemented.
•Credit Controls. Trading notional limits are applied to customers and counterparts. These are monitored throughout the day by trading support and risk professionals.
•Liquidity Controls. We seek to minimize liquidity risk by focusing in highly active and liquid instruments. Less liquid instruments are identified and restrictions are in place as to the size of positions we hold in such instruments.
Our approach to risk mitigation can in some cases limit our overall opportunities, including by adding a degree of latency to our trading infrastructure which can, for example, prevent us from earning outsized returns in times of extreme market volatility. We believe that these trade-offs are necessary to properly limit risk.
We leverage technology and automation to perform many functions within Virtu. Cyber threats are a risk that we are exposed to as a result of our heavy utilization of technology. These threats could include the introduction of malicious code or unauthorized access, and could result in data loss or destruction, business interruption, financial loss, and the unavailability of service and other risks. We have taken steps to mitigate the various cyber threats, and we devote resources to maintain and regularly upgrade our systems and networks and review the ever-changing threat landscape. Cybersecurity risk is managed as part of our overall information technology risk framework under the direction of our Chief Information Security Officer. We periodically review policies and procedures to seek to ensure they are effective in mitigating current cyber and other information security threats. In addition to the policy reviews, we continue to look to implement solutions that enhance preventive and detection capabilities. We also maintain insurance coverage that may, subject to policy terms and conditions, cover certain aspects of cyber risks. However, such insurance may be insufficient to cover all losses or may not provide any coverage.
Competition
The financial services industry generally, and the institutional securities brokerage business in which we operate, are extremely competitive, and we expect them to remain so for the foreseeable future. Our full suite of products does not directly compete with any particular firm; however, individual products compete with various firms and consortia.
Within the market making segment, our competition has been registered market making firms ranging from sole proprietors with very limited resources to large, integrated broker‑dealers. Today, a range of market participants may compete with us for revenues generated by market making activities across one or more asset classes and geographies, including market participants, such as Citadel Securities, Susquehanna International Group LLP, Two Sigma, Jane Street, DRW Holdings, IMC, and Optiver.
In the execution services segment, our low-touch agency algorithmic execution and smart order routing products, as well as our high‑touch agency execution and portfolio trading services, compete with agency‑only and other sell‑side firms. Our trading and portfolio analytics compete with offerings from several sell‑side‑affiliated and independent companies. Our POSIT and MatchIt ATSs compete with various national and regional securities exchanges, ATSs, Electronic Communication Networks, MTFs and systematic internalizers for trade execution services. Our EMS, OMS, connectivity and RFQ services compete with offerings from independent vendors, agency‑only firms and other sell‑side firms.
Some of our competitors in market making and execution services are larger than we are and have more captive order flow in certain assets. Technology and software innovation is a primary focus for us, rather than relying solely on the speed of our network. We believe that our scalable technology allows us to access new markets and increase volumes with limited incremental costs.
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Intellectual Property and Other Proprietary Rights
We rely on federal, state and international laws that govern trade secrets, trademarks, domain names, patents, copyright and contract law to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technology. We enter into confidentiality, intellectual property invention assignment and/or non‑competition and non‑solicitation agreements or restrictions with our employees, independent contractors and business partners, and we control access to, and distribution of, our intellectual property.
Human Capital Resources
As of February 13, 2026, we had approximately 1,027 employees, located in thirteen countries around the world, all of whom were employed on a full‑time basis and in good standing. The approximate regional representation of our workforce is as follows: 69% Americas, 19% EMEA and 12% APAC. None of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements. We believe that our employee relations are good.
In shaping our culture, we aim to combine a high standard of excellence, technological innovation and agility and operational and financial discipline. We believe that our flat and transparent structure and our collaborative and collegial approach enable our employees to grow, develop and maximize their impact on our organization. To attract and retain top talent in our highly competitive industry, we have designed our compensation and benefits programs to promote the retention and growth of our employees along with their health, well-being and financial security. Our short- and long-term incentive programs are aligned with key business objectives and are intended to motivate strong performance. Our employees are eligible for medical, dental and vision insurance, a savings/retirement plan, life and disability insurance, and various wellness programs and we review the competitiveness of our compensation and benefits periodically. As an equal opportunity employer, all qualified applicants receive consideration without regard to race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age or any other legally protected status.
Regulation
We conduct our U.S. equities and options market making and provide execution services through VAL, our SEC‑registered broker‑dealer. VAL is regulated by the SEC and its designated examining authority is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”). VAL is also registered as a floor trader firm with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”).
We are a full clearing member of the National Securities Clearing Corporation (“NSCC”) and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (“DTCC”). Our activities in U.S. equities are both self‑cleared and rely on fully-disclosed clearing arrangements with third-party clearing firms. We use the services of prime brokers, primarily in other asset classes, who provide us direct market access to markets and often cross‑margining and margin financing in return for execution and clearing fees. We continually monitor the credit quality of our prime brokers and rely on large multinational banks for most of our execution and clearing needs globally.
Our energy, commodities and currency market making and trading activities are primarily conducted through Virtu Financial Global Markets LLC, and we conduct our digital asset market making and trading activities primarily through our Singapore affiliate, Virtu Financial Singapore Pte. Ltd..
We conduct our European, Middle Eastern and African (“EMEA”) market making activities from Dublin and through our subsidiary Virtu Financial Ireland Limited (“VFIL”), which is authorized as an “Investment Firm” with the CBI. We conduct our EMEA execution services trading activity from Dublin, London, and Paris through our subsidiary Virtu Europe Trading Limited (“VETL”) (f/k/a Virtu ITG Europe Limited). VETL is authorized and regulated by the CBI as an “Investment Firm” and maintains branch offices in London and Paris. The London branch office of VETL is authorized and regulated by the FCA. VETL’s Paris branch is registered with the Banque de France. VETL also operates a multi-lateral trading facility (“MTF”) in Ireland and Virtu ITG UK Limited (“VIUK”), a U.K. investment firm, operates a MTF in the U.K. VIUK is an investment firm which is authorized and regulated by the FCA.
We conduct our APAC market making activities, including much of our market making in cryptocurrency products from Singapore and through our Singapore subsidiary, Virtu Financial Singapore Pte. Ltd. Virtu Financial Singapore Pte. Ltd. is registered with the MAS for an investment incentive arrangement and licensed by the MAS to deal in certain capital markets instruments. We conduct our APAC execution services trading activities from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia through our subsidiaries Virtu ITG Singapore Pte. Limited, Virtu ITG Hong Kong Limited, and Virtu ITG Australia Limited. Virtu ITG Singapore Pte. Limited is a holder of a Capital Markets Services License from the MAS, which is its principal regulator. Virtu
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ITG Hong Kong Limited is a participating organization of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and a holder of a securities dealer’s license issued by the SFC, which is its principal regulator. Virtu ITG Australia Limited is a market participant of the Australian Securities Exchange (“ASX”) and Chi-X Australia Limited, and is also a holder of an Australian Financial Services License issued by the ASIC, which is its principal regulator.
Our Canadian market making activities and our Canadian execution services trading activities are conducted through our subsidiary Virtu Canada Corp (f/k/a Virtu ITG Canada Corp.). Virtu Canada Corp. is a Canadian broker‑dealer registered as an investment dealer with CIRO, Ontario Securities Commission (“OSC”), the Autorité Des Marchés Financiers in Quebec, Alberta Securities Commission (“ASC”), British Columbia Securities Commission, Manitoba Securities Commission, New Brunswick Securities Commission, Nova Scotia Securities Commission and Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission. Virtu Canada Corp. is also registered as a Futures Commission Merchant in Ontario and Manitoba and Derivatives Dealer in Quebec.
Most aspects of our business are subject to regulation under federal, state and foreign laws and regulations, as well as the rules of the various self-regulatory organization (“SROs”) of which our broker-dealer subsidiaries are members. The SEC, FINRA, CFTC, NFA, the U.S. Department of Treasury, U.S. state securities regulators and other state regulators, the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) in the European Union, the CBI in Ireland, FCA in the U.K., Banque de France in France, MAS in Singapore, SFC in Hong Kong, ASIC in Australia, CIRO and OSC in Canada, other SROs and other U.S. and foreign governmental regulatory bodies promulgate numerous rules and regulations that may impact our business. As a matter of public policy, regulatory bodies are charged with safeguarding the integrity of the securities and other financial markets and with protecting the interests of investors in those markets, including, but not limited to, trading practices, order handling, best execution practices, anti‑money laundering and financial crimes, handling of material non‑public information, safeguarding data, compliance with exchange and clearinghouse rules, capital adequacy, customer protection, reporting, record retention, market access and the conduct of officers, employees and other associated persons.
Rulemaking by these and other regulators (foreign and domestic), including resulting market structure changes, has had an impact on our regulated subsidiaries by directly affecting our method of operation and, at times, our profitability. Legislation can impose, and has imposed, significant obligations on broker‑dealers, including our regulated subsidiaries. These increased obligations require the implementation and maintenance of internal practices, procedures and controls, and the need for additional employee resources, and have increased our costs, and may subject us to government and regulatory inquiries, claims or penalties. Changes in market structure can also necessitate restructuring our operations for compliance in certain jurisdictions which has cost implications.
Failure to comply with any laws, rules or regulations could result in administrative or court proceedings, censures, fines, penalties, judgments, disgorgement, restitution and censures, suspension or expulsion from a certain jurisdiction, SRO or market, the revocation or limitation of licenses and/or business activities, the issuance of cease‑and‑desist orders or injunctions or the suspension or disqualification of the entity and/or its officers, employees or other associated persons and could negatively impact our reputation with clients or prospective clients and, in turn, impact our revenues. From time to time, we are the subject of requests for information and documents from the SEC, FINRA and other regulators which could lead to administrative or court proceedings. It is our practice to cooperate and comply with the requests for information and documents. Regulatory inquiries can require substantial expenditures of time and money and can have an adverse impact on our reputation, customer relationship and profitability.
The regulatory environment in which we operate is subject to constant change. Our business, financial condition, and operating results may also be adversely affected as a result of new or revised legislation or regulations imposed by the U.S. Congress, foreign legislative bodies, state securities regulators, U.S. and foreign governmental regulatory bodies and SROs. Additional regulations, changes in existing laws and rules, or changes in interpretations or enforcement of existing laws and rules often directly affect the method of operation and profitability of regulated broker‑dealers. We cannot predict what effect, if any, future legislative or regulatory changes might have. However, there have been in the past, and could be in the future, significant technological, operational and compliance costs associated with the obligations which derive from compliance with such regulations. Regulators may propose market structure changes particularly considering the continued regulatory, congressional and media scrutiny of U.S. equities market structure, the retail trading environment in the U.S., wholesale market making and the relationships between retail broker-dealers and market making firms, including but not limited to payment for order flow arrangements, other remuneration arrangements such as profit-sharing relationships and exchange fee and rebate structures, ATSs and off-exchange trading more generally, high frequency trading, short selling, market fragmentation, colocation, and access to market data feeds. Additionally, recent developments in law and regulation relating to digital assets and cryptocurrency include the adoption of the Guiding and Establishing National innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (the “GENIUS Act”) and the proposal of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (the “CLARITY Act”) and the “Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2025” in the United States, and the adoption of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR)
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in the EU. These enacted, pending or potential rule changes in law, rule or regulation, to the extent adopted, along with those that have recently been adopted, could adversely affect the Company’s business or the Company’s industry, though may also have positive impacts.
The SEC and other SROs have recently enacted and considered rules that may affect our operations and profitability. Specifically, the SEC under the previous administration (i) adopted rule amendments to minimum pricing increments under Rule 612 of Regulation NMS, access fee caps under Rule 610 of Regulation NMS, acceleration of the implementation of certain Market Data Infrastructure Rules, and an amendment to the odd-lot information definition adopted under the MDI rules (collectively referred to as the “tick size, access fees and infrastructure rule proposals”), which had a previous compliance date commencing in November 2025, and the compliance date for tick size and access fees rule changes have been delayed until November 2026, and the infrastructure rule proposal concerning odd lots has been delayed until May 2026, (ii) adopted amendments to Rule 605 of Regulation NMS, which had a previous compliance date on or about December 15, 2025 but which has now been postponed until August 1, 2026, (iii) approved a funding model submitted by several exchanges in relation to the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) which provides for fee collection commencing November 2024 but which was ultimately struck down by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and (iv) adopted rules to amend the definitions of “dealer” and “government securities dealer” within the Exchange Act, which would have broadened the scope of these registrant categories, though this rule was recently vacated by the United States District Court.
In June of 2025, under Chair Atkins, the SEC withdrew the following previously pending proposals: (i) Proposed Rule 615 of Regulation NMS (i.e., the Order Competition Rule), (ii) Regulation Best Execution, (iii) a series of amendments to the definition of Exchange and Alternative Trading Systems (ATS), (iv) proposed amendments to expand and update Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (SCI), and (v) a proposal to restrict volume based tiered pricing by equity exchanges in certain cases. Further, in September 2025, the FTC took steps to dismiss its appeal of a rule it previously announced a final rule banning most non-compete clauses in employer-employee contracts.
The Dodd‑Frank Act, which has been implemented through extensive rulemaking by the SEC, the CFTC, and other governmental agencies, includes the “Volcker Rule,” which significantly limits the ability of banks and their affiliates to engage in proprietary trading, and Title VII, which provides a framework for the regulation of the swap markets. Two of our subsidiaries are registered with the CFTC as floor traders, and are exempt from registration as swap dealers based on their current activity. Registration as a swap dealer would subject one or both of our subsidiaries to various requirements, including those related to capital, conduct, and reporting.
We have foreign subsidiaries and plan to continue to expand our international presence. The market making and execution services industry in many foreign countries is heavily regulated, much like in the U.S. The varying compliance requirements of these different regulatory jurisdictions and other factors may limit our ability to conduct business or expand internationally. MiFID II represented significant change in the operation of European capital markets and became effective on January 3, 2018. MiFID II introduced requirements for increased pre- and post-trade transparency, technological and organizational requirements for firms deploying algorithmic trading techniques, restrictions on dark trading, and the roll out of a new bi-lateral OTC equity trading regime called the Systematic Internaliser regime. MiFID II contains detailed rules as to the types of platform upon which European equities trading can be conducted, including Regulated Markets, MTFs, Organized Trading Facilities, Systematic Internalisers or equivalent third-country venues. MiFID II also requires market makers, such as VFIL, to post firm quotes at competitive prices and contains supplemental requirements with regards to investment firms’ pre-trade risk controls relating to the safe operation of electronic systems. MiFID II also imposed additional requirements on trading platforms, such as additional technological requirements, clock synchronization, microsecond processing granularity, pre-trade risk controls, transaction reporting requirements and limits on the ratio of unexecuted orders to trades. The MiFID II regime has been under review, with European Union authorities making further changes to the regime. On February 28, 2024, Directive (EU) 2024/790 amending MiFID II (the “MiFID Amending Directive”) and Regulation (EU) 2024/791 amending Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 (also known as “MiFIR”) (the “MiFIR Amending Regulation”) as regards enhancing data transparency, removing obstacles to the emergence of consolidated tapes, optimizing the trading obligations and prohibiting receiving payment for order flow were each adopted. The two acts entered into force on March 28, 2024, with the MiFIR Amending Regulation applying from that date, and the MiFID Amending Directive requiring adoption by Member States by September 29, 2025. These changes at the ‘Level 1’ legislative level include a substantial number of ‘Level 2’ measures, including by means of regulatory technical standards and implementing technical standards, several of which remain outstanding.
Further, in light of the U.K.’s withdrawal of its membership from the E.U., which is commonly referred to as “Brexit,” the passporting regime under MiFID II, which enables firms to provide services to countries across the E.U., no longer encompasses the U.K. VFIL and VETL continue to access U.K. markets, however, these entities do so not on the basis of MiFID passporting rights, but as third-country entities pursuant to U.K. law. As of December 8, 2023, VETL’s application for
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its London branch to be authorized as a third-country branch was approved by the FCA, facilitating the long-term operational footprint of VETL’s branch in the U.K.
Each of these legislative and regulatory requirements imposes additional technological, operational and compliance costs on us. New laws, rules or regulations as well as any regulatory or legal actions or proceedings, changes in legislation or regulation and changes in market customs and practices could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.
Certain of our subsidiaries are subject to regulatory capital rules of the SEC, FINRA, other SROs and foreign regulators. These rules, which specify minimum capital requirements for our regulated subsidiaries, are designed to measure the general financial integrity and liquidity of a broker‑dealer and require that at least a minimum part of its assets be kept in relatively liquid form. Failure to maintain required minimum capital may subject a regulated subsidiary to a fine, requirement to cease conducting business, suspension, revocation of registration or expulsion by applicable regulatory authorities, and ultimately could require the relevant entity’s liquidation. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors - Risks Related to Our Business - Non-compliance with applicable laws or regulatory requirements could subject us to sanctions and could negatively impact our reputation, prospects, revenues and earnings.”
Corporate History
We and our predecessors have been in the electronic trading and market making business for more than 20 years. We conduct our business through Virtu Financial LLC (“Virtu Financial”) and its subsidiaries. We completed our initial public offering (“IPO”) in April 2015, after which shares of our Class A common stock, par value $0.00001 per share (the “Class A Common Stock”) began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “VIRT.” In 2025, we transferred the listing of the Class A Common Stock from Nasdaq to NYSE.
Prior to our IPO, we completed a series of reorganization transactions (the “Reorganization Transactions”) pursuant to which, among other things, we acquired equity interests in Virtu Financial as a result of certain mergers involving wholly owned subsidiaries of ours, an affiliate of Silver Lake Partners and Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited (“Temasek”), and an affiliate of Temasek (the “Temasek Pre-IPO Member”) (the “Mergers”), and in exchange we issued to an affiliate of Silver Lake Partners (such affiliate, the “Silver Lake Post-IPO Stockholder”) and an affiliate of Temasek (such affiliate, the “Temasek Post-IPO Stockholder”, and together with the Silver Lake Post-IPO Stockholder, the “Investor Post-IPO Stockholders”), shares of our Class A Common Stock and rights to receive payments under a tax receivable agreement described below, we became the sole managing member of Virtu Financial, all of the existing equity interests in Virtu Financial were reclassified into non-voting common interest units (“Virtu Financial Units”), our certificate of incorporation was amended and restated to authorize the issuance of four classes of common stock: Class A Common Stock, Class B Common Stock (as defined below), Class C Common Stock (as defined below) and Class D Common Stock (as defined below), and the holders of Virtu Financial Units other than us subscribed for shares of Class C common stock, par value $0.00001 per share (the “Class C Common Stock”) or Class D common stock, par value $0.00001 per share (the “Class D Common Stock”) (in the case of the Founder Post-IPO Member, as defined below) in an amount equal to the number of Virtu Financial Units held by such member.
The Class A Common Stock and Class C Common Stock each provide holders with one vote on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders, and the Class B Common Stock, par value $0.00001 per share (the “Class B Common Stock”) and Class D Common Stock each provide holders with 10 votes on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders. The holders of Class C Common Stock and Class D Common Stock do not have any of the economic rights (including rights to dividends and distributions upon liquidation) provided to holders of Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock. Shares of our common stock generally vote together as a single class on all matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders.
As a result of the completion of the IPO, the Reorganization Transactions, the July 2017 Private Placement (as defined below), and certain other secondary offerings and permitted exchanges by current and former employees of Virtu Financial Units for shares of the Company’s Class A Common Stock, the Company holds an approximately 57.2% interest in Virtu Financial at December 31, 2025. The remaining issued and outstanding Virtu Financial Units are held by an affiliate of Mr. Vincent Viola (the “Founder Post-IPO Member”), two entities whose equity holders include certain current and former members of the management of Virtu Financial, and certain other current and former members of management of Virtu Financial (collectively, the “Virtu Post-IPO Members”). The Founder Post-IPO Member controls approximately 87.1% of the combined voting power of our outstanding common stock as of December 31, 2025. As a result, the Founder Post-IPO Member controls any actions requiring the general approval of our stockholders, including the election of our Board of Directors, the adoption of amendments to our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and the approval of any merger or sale of substantially all of our assets. The Founder Post-IPO Member is controlled by family members of Mr. Viola, our Founder and Chairman Emeritus.
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We have completed two significant acquisitions that have expanded and complemented Virtu Financial’s original electronic trading and market making business. On July 20, 2017 (the “KCG Closing Date”), the Company completed the all-cash acquisition (the “Acquisition of KCG”) of KCG Holdings, Inc. (“KCG”) and on March 1, 2019 (the “ITG Closing Date”), we completed our acquisition of Investment Technology Group, Inc. (“ITG”) in an all-cash transaction (the “ITG Acquisition”).
Available Information
Our website address is www.virtu.com. The information on our website is not, and shall not be deemed to be, a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or incorporated into any other filings we make with the SEC. Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) are available free of charge on our website as soon as possible after we electronically file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC. The reports and the other documents that we file with the SEC are also available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
Our Investor Relations Department can be contacted at Virtu Financial, Inc., 1633 Broadway, New York, NY, 10019, Attn: Investor Relations, e-mail: investor_relations@virtu.com.
From time to time, we use our website, public conference calls, and social media channels, including our X account (x.com/virtufinancial), our LinkedIn account (linkedin.com/company/virtu-financial), and our Instagram account (instagram.com/virtu.financial), as additional means of disclosing public information to investors, the media and others interested in us. It is possible that certain information we post on our website and on social media could be deemed to be material information, and we encourage investors, the media and others interested in us to review the business and financial information we post on our website and on the social media channels identified above. The information on our website and our social media channels is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.