JosephTuccio has joined Spotex as head of digital assets, the US institutionaltrading venue said today (Thursday). He arrives from Seabury Capital, along-time Spotex investor, where he ran digital partnerships and helped line upmuch of the crypto network the venue is now building on.The moveformalizes a relationship that was already doing work behind the scenes. Spotexsaid many of its recent tie-ups with cryptoliquidity providers and custodians came through Tuccio's contacts before he took a full-time seat. Founded in2010, Spotex runs an electronic communications network for foreign exchange andprecious metals.An Investor's ExecutiveMoves Into the Operating SeatTuccio hasspent close to half of a roughly 20-year markets career in institutionaldigital assets, according to Spotex. He held business development roles atElysium Technology Group and Bosonic, and served as global head of digitalasset management at Nukkleus, which the company says he helped scale before its2020 sale.Earlier, heworked in institutional FX at ED&F Man, FIXI Americas and FC Stone, nowStoneX. His hire follows other Spotex build-outs on the sales side, includingthe earlier appointment of KevinGillespie to lead eurozone FX sales.The venueis run by John Miesner, who was promoted tochief executive fromthe sales side. Miesner said the firm would "bring the same executionstandards ... that have defined our FX business" to crypto clients.Tuccio added"FX clients are increasingly looking at expanding to digital assets,"and framed the offer as a single venue and API spanning FX, metals and crypto. Spotex hasrun its FX ECN since 2014 and previously routed it to clients throughinstitutional firms including INTL FCStone. It now wants that same reach onthe crypto side.Spotex Enters a FieldBuilt by Crypto NativesTheinstitutional digital-asset venue Spotex is targeting is already occupied.Wintermute, one of the market makers Spotex has signed, has pushed 350-pluscrypto pairs into traditional finance through connectivity deals. B2C2, anothernamed partner, has built institutionalcrypto liquidity aroundthe same buy-side demand.On thesettlement side, custodians such as Anchorage Digital have been wiring intoinstitutional venues for years, including as the custodianchosen by EDX's clearinghouse. Spotex's pitch is different in origin: it is an FX operator boltingcrypto onto an existing execution stack, rather than a crypto-native firmreaching toward institutions.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.