True Markets

True Markets is a Solana-focused trading company that builds stablecoin-native infrastructure for both retail and institutional crypto markets. Founded in 2024 by former Coinbase and Goldman Sachs executives, the company operates two distinct products: the True Markets mobile app, a non-custodial DeFi trading application launched in May 2025, and TrueX, a centralized matching engine designed for institutional and professional clients. The common thread across both products is a deliberate separation of trade execution from asset custody — an architectural choice the founders describe as the defining lesson of recent exchange collapses, most notably FTX.

Founders and Background

True Markets was founded by Vishal Gupta and Patrick McCreary, who previously worked together at Coinbase and Goldman Sachs. Gupta served as Head of Exchange at Coinbase, where he expanded the platform's asset coverage and helped launch two derivatives exchanges. Earlier, at Circle, he led the launch and growth of USDC. McCreary was a senior engineering leader at Coinbase and one of the key architects behind Coinbase International Exchange. The pair announced their new venture in September 2024 alongside TrueX, their institutional trading product.

The Stablecoin-Native Model

The central design principle at True Markets is treating stablecoins as the native unit of trading rather than a settlement afterthought. In the TrueX product, trades are settled in stablecoins by default — the platform launched with PYUSD, PayPal's dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos Trust Company, as its default settlement currency. This approach is intended to eliminate conversion steps and reduce execution friction, particularly for institutional traders who already operate in dollar-denominated terms. The same philosophy carries into the retail app. Rather than holding user funds or commingling assets, both products rely on third-party custodians and hosted wallet infrastructure, keeping user assets fully segregated from the exchange's own operations.

TrueX: Institutional Trading Infrastructure

TrueX operates as a centralized matching engine for institutional clients, providing spot trading in what the company calls "head and torso" assets: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The platform uses a proprietary matching engine paired with a custody architecture built around Paxos, ensuring that execution and asset holding are handled by separate entities. TrueX supports REST, WebSocket, and FIX protocols — standard connectivity formats for institutional trading desks — with integration points for market makers and algorithmic traders. The REST API gateway uses JWT authentication and the /v1/conductor/quotes endpoint for quote fetching and order execution.

True Markets App: Mobile-First DeFi on Solana

The True Markets mobile app launched on the Apple App Store in May 2025, targeting retail traders in the United States. It is built exclusively on Solana and supports over 120 Solana-based assets and more than 30 base assets at launch, with plans to add Bitcoin and Ethereum as additional base assets through summer 2025. Core capabilities include: stablecoin-powered execution (trades denominated and settled in stablecoins, removing the need to manage gas tokens); gasless transactions (the platform abstracts fee complexity); smart order routing across decentralized venues; non-custodial hosted wallets via Turnkey; and real-time sparklines with weekly token whitelisting and risk disclosures for newer assets.

Funding and Investors

True Markets raised a $9 million seed round in September 2024 from RRE Ventures, Reciprocal Ventures, Paxos, Accomplice Blockchain, Hack VC, the Solana Foundation, and Aptos. In May 2025, the company announced an $11 million Series A co-led by Accomplice and RRE Ventures, with additional participation from Reciprocal Ventures, Variant, and PayPal Ventures. Total funding stands at $20 million. The company had 10 full-time employees at the time of the Series A close.

Solana Integration

True Markets' retail product is built exclusively on Solana, leveraging the network's speed and throughput for on-chain token trading. The Solana Foundation participated in the seed round, and the mobile app launch was framed as a Solana-first expansion, with cross-chain support for Bitcoin and Ethereum planned later. Smart order routing aggregates liquidity across Solana's decentralized trading venues, giving retail users competitive pricing without requiring them to navigate individual DEX interfaces.

Developer Access and API Infrastructure

True Markets exposes its trading infrastructure through a documented API layer covering Retail Gateway, Institutional CeFi REST, Market Data feeds, and Auth/Account management. The company has also released a Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration, allowing the True Markets API to be accessed via AI agent frameworks.

True Markets represents a bet that the next wave of US crypto trading adoption will be won by platforms combining non-custodial security, stablecoin-native settlement, and mobile-first design, rather than replicating the custodial order-book models of earlier centralized exchanges.