Cube Exchange

Cube Exchange is a hybrid crypto exchange. Trades match on a fast order book, as on a normal exchange. But your coins stay in a shared-key vault that Cube can't move on its own. Bartosz Lipiński and Larry Wu founded it in 2023. Both came from trading firms, and Wu also worked at Solana Labs. In October 2026 its website lists more than 1,420 tokens, including BTC, ETH and SOL.

Cube is closely tied to Solana. The group that co-signs its settlements launched with the Solana Foundation and Solana validators. But 2026 has been quiet. A plan to list Cube on the stock market fell apart in April. Its X account has not posted since late April.

How Cube Exchange works: MPC vaults, Guardians and CubeNet settlement

Every Cube account is a vault built with multi-party computation (MPC). The private key is never in one place. It is split into three shares. You hold one, Cube holds one, and an outside group called the Guardians holds one. Any two shares can sign a transfer.

Think of a safe that needs two of three keys. Cube can't open it alone. If Cube disappears, you and a Guardian can still open it together. Cube's litepaper says you get your share as a PDF, so keeping it safe is your job.

Trading happens off-chain. Cube's matching engine runs in Tokyo, Stockholm and Pittsburgh, and Cube says a match takes about 200 microseconds. Your balance changes the moment an order fills. The results then go to CubeNet, Cube's settlement layer. CubeNet adds up what each vault owes and is owed, and the net transfers are signed and sent on-chain. The FAQ says this usually takes under 24 hours, and at most 48.

If CubeNet stalls for 48 hours, the litepaper says the Guardians "may independently support the user in transferring funds out of their MPC Vault."

Who are the Cube Guardians?

The Guardians are outside firms that check Cube's settlement sums and refuse to sign bad withdrawals. Cube launched its Guardian Council in March 2024. The first members were the Solana Foundation and the validator firms Everstake, Triton One, Juicy Stake and Kiln.

The litepaper says Guardians earn 5% of net trading fees, with a monthly minimum. Cube's security page does not name today's Guardians. So you can't easily check who holds the third key share now.

Cube Exchange fees and KYC requirements

Cube charges 0.14% on maker orders and 0.24% on taker orders, per its fee schedule. It lists no volume discounts. A maker order waits on the book. A taker order fills right away against one that is waiting.

The homepage promises "zero spread". That means you pay the order book price with no hidden markup. Deposits cost only the network fee. Withdrawal fees are waived during Cube's "early access period", which was still running in October 2026.

ID checks are a mixed message. The homepage says "No ID required". But the FAQ says you need Level 1 checks to trade, and Level 2 to buy crypto with cash through a partner. Plan on proving who you are before you trade.

Cube Exchange app features: pro trading, swaps, bundles and the AI trading bot

One Cube account works on the web and in apps for iPhone and Android. The main tools are:

• Pro trading, with charts, depth views and advanced order types.
• Swap, a simple buy and sell screen with no order book.
• Bundles, which buy a basket of tokens in one click.
• Recurring buy, for buying a set amount on a schedule.
• Algos, for automating your own trade rules.
• Staking and earn, listed on the homepage with few details.
• APIs over REST, WebSocket, FIX and UDP, for bots and market makers.

The newest product is AI Fund, a trading desk for Anthropic's Claude Code. Its GitHub page offers 42 AI "hedge fund agents" named after traders like Jim Simons. They can paper trade, or trade live on Cube, OKX, Kraken, Binance and Coinbase. It is a command-line tool for coders, not a managed fund, and Cube publishes no checked track record for it.

Is Cube Exchange safe? Audits, custody and risks

Cube's custody design is its best safety feature. Cube can't move your funds alone. If the company failed, the Guardian backstop is meant to let you withdraw. Most exchanges offer nothing like it.

The design has limits, though. The only public audit we found is a Hacken test of Cube's web app and API from January 2025. It found two low-risk issues and nothing serious. It did not cover the key-sharing system, the Guardian software or CubeNet. Cube also runs a bug bounty that pays up to $10,000.

Other risks to weigh:

• The 48-hour Guardian backstop has never been used in a real failure. It needs your key share and Guardians who are no longer named.
• Your balance updates at once, but on-chain settlement can take up to 48 hours. Until then you rely on Cube's records.
• Trading has thinned out. In July 2026 the trading-bot project Hummingbot removed its Cube connector. Its docs say Cube is "no longer viable due to negligible trading volume on major pairs." Thin order books mean more slippage on big orders.
• Cube's risk disclosure bars users in unnamed "Restricted Jurisdictions". It also says Cube may stop serving a region if rules get too costly.
• Signs of life are mixed. The X account went quiet after 24 April 2026, and the newest blog post is dated 17 June 2026. The apps and some code were still being updated in July 2026.

No hack or loss of user funds has been reported. Cube says it publishes reserve proofs regularly, but not how often.

Who Cube Exchange is for

Cube Exchange suits traders who want an order book for BTC, ETH, SOL and other big coins without handing their coins to an exchange. You must be able to store a key share safely. It also suits coders who want a fast API or want to test the AI Fund agents.

It is a poor fit if you trade large sizes and need deep liquidity. It is also a poor fit if you want a long track record or a fully licensed exchange. Given how quiet Cube has been in 2026, keep only the funds you are actively trading there.

Cube Exchange vs Backpack and other Solana trading venues

Pick Cube if you care most about holding your own keys. Pick Backpack if you want licences and more trading. Both are Solana-linked exchanges that started after FTX failed. Backpack holds your funds the way a normal exchange does, and it is licensed in several countries. Cube keeps your funds in a shared-key vault, but it has fewer licences and thinner markets.

On-chain venues take the exchange out of custody fully. Phoenix runs an order book that lives on Solana itself. Jupiter JUP$0.312+3.9% finds the best swap price across Solana apps, from your own wallet. Each trade settles at once, with no 48-hour wait. The catch is that you can only trade Solana tokens. You also swap exchange risk for wallet and code risk.

The Cube Exchange SPAC deal with Mercer Park

Cube's plan to go public through a SPAC failed in April 2026. A SPAC is a listed shell company that buys a private firm to take it public. In October 2025, Cube Group agreed to merge with Mercer Park Opportunities Corp., a SPAC on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The deal valued Cube at $300 million.

The merged firm was also meant to buy a large SOL treasury with its own shares. Mercer Park put that at $500 million.

In April 2026, Mercer Park said it had served notice to end the deal. It gave Cube a short deadline to "cure certain matters" that it did not name, and said it did not expect a fix. It then began looking for other deals. Most of its public shareholders took their money back. Neither the listing nor the SOL treasury happened.

Cube Exchange team, funding and history

Cube is run by CEO Bartosz Lipiński and CTO Larry Wu, per its about page. Lipiński built trading systems at Citadel and JP Morgan. Wu worked at the trading firm DRW and at Solana Labs.

Cube says it has raised about $22 million. In late 2023 it raised a $12 million Series A, The Block reported. Backers named by Cube include Solana Ventures, Foundation Capital, ParaFi Capital, Anagram, GSR and 6th Man Ventures.

Key dates:

• 2023: Cube launched in Australia first. Lipiński presented it at Breakpoint 2023 and on the Lightspeed podcast.
• 2024: The Guardian Council launched in March. At Breakpoint 2024, Lipiński showed plans for a cross-chain intent network.
• 2025: Hacken tested the web app and API in January. The Mercer Park deal was signed in October.
• 2026: In March, Infobae reported on an unsigned draft letter from Cube Exchange Australia Pty Ltd to Argentina's president. Dated August 2024, it proposed a crypto credit cooperative and is now part of the federal $LIBRA probe. The report did not accuse Cube of wrongdoing. The SPAC deal ended in April, AI Fund launched in the first half of the year, and Hummingbot dropped Cube in July.