Aquanow

Aquanow is a digital asset infrastructure company that provides regulated financial institutions with the technology and liquidity they need to build, launch, and scale cryptocurrency and stablecoin services. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Aquanow has grown to serve more than 480 active institutional clients across 50 countries, with cumulative trading volume exceeding 130 billion USD.\n\nRather than operating as a retail exchange or consumer-facing wallet, Aquanow sits at the infrastructure layer providing the pipes, rails, and compliance frameworks that allow banks, fintechs, CFD platforms, payment companies, and other institutions to offer digital asset services to their own customers without building that infrastructure themselves.\n\n## Core Products\n\nAquanow organizes its offerings into two broad categories: digital asset brokerage infrastructure and stablecoin payment services.\n\nDigital Asset Brokerage\n\nThe brokerage suite operates at three levels of integration depth. Aquanow's Liquidity and Conversion product gives institutions access to deep cryptocurrency liquidity through an API, a trading platform, or over-the-counter desk. The Trading Infrastructure product is a white-label brokerage platform that clients can deploy under their own brand and license, connecting through APIs to pricing, order management, execution, market data, and settlement workflows. The product includes 220+ supported trading pairs, real-time and historical market data, multiple order types, and revenue controls. Aquanow also offers Embedded Brokerage, a fully managed solution in which Aquanow operates the brokerage on behalf of the client, handling KYC, AML, and regulatory filings under its own licenses.\n\nStablecoin Payments\n\nThe Aquapay product line enables institutions to accept, send, and manage stablecoin payments. The Send product powers fiat-to-stablecoin payouts using USDC or USDT. The Receive product allows merchants to accept stablecoin payments while settling in fiat. The Manage product provides hosted wallet infrastructure for stablecoin balances. For CFD platforms and online brokers, Aquanow enables customers to fund accounts with Solana (SOL), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP, USDC, and USDT, with built-in conversion to fiat.\n\n## Supported Assets\n\nAquanow supports more than 70 digital assets and over 220 trading pairs. The asset list includes Solana (SOL) alongside Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and XRP as tier-one assets. Stablecoin coverage includes USDC and USDT. Fiat settlement currencies span USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, AED, and TRY.\n\n## Solana Integration\n\nSolana (SOL) is listed as one of the core digital assets supported across Aquanow's trading and payments products. Institutions using Aquanow's brokerage infrastructure can offer customers the ability to buy, sell, and hold SOL against fiat currencies. As of 2025, Solana hosts the second-largest USDC supply of any blockchain, making it a natural settlement layer for the stablecoin flows that Aquanow's Aquapay product targets.\n\n## Team\n\nAquanow was co-founded by Phil Sham (CEO) and Andy Leung (CTO). Sham previously led global electronic trading at CC&L Investment Management and built institutional trading solutions at CIBC Capital Markets. Leung served as Vice President of Electronic Trading at RBC Capital Markets and maintains a research connection to the blockchain space through the UBC Aquanow DeFi Lab. The company now employs more than 200 people globally.\n\n## Regulatory Status and Compliance\n\nAquanow operates through multiple regulated affiliates. Registrations and licenses include FINTRAC/CANAFE in Canada, FinCEN in the United States, Banco de Espana in Spain, and the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai, where the company received its VASP license in February 2024. The platform holds ISO 27001:2022 and SOC 2 certifications. Embedded KYC, AML, and KYT screening tools are built into the platform.\n\n## Scale and Recent Developments\n\nAs of 2025-2026, Aquanow claims 480+ active institutional clients, 130B+ USD in cumulative trading volume, and operations in more than 50 countries with six global offices. The company was recognized by Deloitte as one of the fastest-growing companies in North America in both 2023 and 2024. In early 2025, Aquanow partnered with Emirates NBD to power the bank's Liv X mobile app, enabling cryptocurrency trading through the bank's digital platform. In February 2025, Aquanow collaborated with Hubpay to launch the UAE's first fully regulated crypto payment gateway for businesses and SMEs. Aquanow has also announced support for an AED-USD stablecoin conversion framework between AE Coin and USDU.\n\n## Summary\n\nAquanow functions as a full-stack digital asset infrastructure provider for institutions that want to offer crypto and stablecoin services without building the underlying technology themselves. Its combination of white-label brokerage, stablecoin payment rails, and multi-jurisdictional regulatory coverage distinguishes it from consumer exchanges. For the Solana ecosystem, Aquanow represents institutional distribution infrastructure: a channel through which banks, fintechs, and trading platforms can bring SOL exposure and Solana-based stablecoin settlement to their end customers.