Former investment banking executives have launched a Hong Kong‑based crypto proprietary trading firm dubbed Velotrade Re Limited. The founders, Gianluca Pizzituti and Vittorio De Angelis, previously held derivatives roles at JP Morgan, Dresdner Kleinwort, and Bank of America.

Their earlier venture, Velotrade Management Limited, operates an active trade‑finance platform. However, the new company is a separate entity focused only on crypto trading.

A New Revenue Structure

Most prop firms rely on challenge fees when traders fail. Velotrade operates differently, its revenue comes from live market replication of profitable trader positions using institutional liquidity and algorithmic hedging, the Friday's announcement noted.

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Crypto prop trading uses a prop firm’s capital to trade only digital assets like bitcoin and ether. It is often through funded accounts that sit on demo or simulated infrastructure but link to real crypto liquidity Liquidity The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent Read this Term and defined profit splits for traders. In the past two years, several players such as HyroTrader, Crypto Fund Trader, and PipFarm have moved into this space.

Keep reading: From Pioneer to Leader: Crypto Fund Trader Announces $18 Million Paid to Traders

Both Pizzituti and De Angelis have extensive backgrounds with major global financial institutions before co-founding Velotrade. Pizzituti spent over five years at Dresdner Kleinwort in London, focusing on equity derivatives and OTC single-stock options market-making, before launching his own proprietary trading company, Colosseum Financials, in Singapore.

De Angelis began his career in derivatives trading at JP Morgan and Dresdner Bank, later becoming Managing Director and Co-Head of Derivatives Trading at Bank of America in London.

Velotrade limits its offering to crypto only, with leverage Leverage In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders Read this Term reportedly up to 6x on BTC and ETH. Funded traders can request payouts in USDC or USDT after 14 days.

Crypto-Native Props Add On-Chain Transparency

Unlike the multi‑asset, FX‑ and CFD‑centric prop firms that dominate the industry, where traders usually operate on MT4/MT5 or similar platforms across currencies, indices and commodities, these newer crypto‑native outfits build around 24/7 digital markets.

It also comprise exchange connectivity and proof‑of‑reserves style transparency.

Crypto prop trading is attracting firms that now report sizeable payouts and transparent capital backing, such as Crypto Fund Trader. The firm recently disclosed that it has distributed more than $18 million to traders using a model built natively around blockchain infrastructure.