What ShortHop is
ShortHop was an "exchange of exchanges" launched in February 2019 in New York by Velocity Markets Inc. (born out of the trading firm Fractal Wealth): a single interface that connected to multiple exchanges and offered users the best available price, with zero trading fees. By the end of 2019 it had extended operations to seven US states. It never served the European market. The project was later discontinued: industry directories classify it as "discontinued" and the site has been offline for some time. As at 2 September 2026 shorthop.com responds only with a domain parking page, and the Crunchbase profile of Velocity Markets lists the company as permanently closed. (Verified: September 2026 — direct check of the domain by the editorial team)
Regulation and licences
- MiCA: NOT APPLICABLE — ShortHop was never active in the EU and ceased operations well before the regulation came fully into force. It operated only in a few US states. (Verified: September 2026)
- Current status: service discontinued. Public sources do not report the exact closure date; the site has been inactive for years.
Security
There are no security incidents or losses of customer funds linked to the closure: the service was simply discontinued. Anyone searching for "ShortHop" today should know that any active site on that domain has nothing to do with the original exchange.
Alternatives
- Kraken — regulated exchange active in both the US and the EU (MiCA licence via Ireland)
- Gemini — regulated US exchange
FAQ
Does ShortHop still exist? No. The service has been discontinued and as of September 2026 the shorthop.com domain is a parked domain with no content; the parent company Velocity Markets is listed as closed. (Verified: September 2026)
What was the "exchange of exchanges" model? ShortHop did not maintain its own order book: it routed orders to several partner exchanges and showed users the best aggregated price, with no direct trading fees.
Verified sources
- https://cointelegraph.com/news/single-window-crypto-exchange-shorthop-launches-in-7-us-sta
- https://blockspot.io/exchange/shorthop/
- https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/velocity-markets
- https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/3171
