SETL Exchange
A real-time digital trading platform for investment managers to buy and sell assets.
I designed SETL Exchange, a real-time trading platform that gave investment managers the immediacy of traditional markets with Blockchain's settlement certainty. The challenge: making distributed ledger technology feel familiar to institutional traders.
Background
Context
Traditional asset trading involves multiple intermediaries, delayed settlement windows, and reconciliation overhead that creates friction and risk. SETL Exchange aimed to streamline this by enabling direct, real-time trading on Blockchain infrastructure. Investment managers needed a platform that matched the responsiveness of conventional trading terminals while providing visibility into the instant settlement that differentiated Blockchain-based execution. The interface had to serve both active traders making rapid decisions and portfolio managers monitoring positions across multiple asset classes.
Challenge
Trading platforms live and die by milliseconds — any interface friction translates directly to missed opportunities and user frustration. I needed to design for speed without sacrificing clarity, presenting real-time price movements, order books, and trade confirmations in a layout that traders could parse instantly. The additional complexity came from Blockchain's novel settlement model: unlike traditional T+2 settlement, trades on SETL Exchange settled immediately, and the interface needed to communicate this advantage without overwhelming users with technical details about the underlying infrastructure.
Final Concept
The final design balanced information density with visual hierarchy, giving traders immediate access to price charts, order entry, and position summaries while keeping secondary functions accessible but unobtrusive. I prioritised real-time feedback — trade confirmations, settlement status, and portfolio updates appeared instantly, reinforcing the platform's core value proposition. The visual language drew from established trading platform conventions to minimise the learning curve, while subtle design elements highlighted Blockchain-specific features like settlement confirmation and transparent transaction history.
SETL Exchange dashboard view
Prototype
Impact
Platform Deployment
The platform was deployed for institutional clients, enabling real-time Blockchain-based trading.
Strategic Foundation
This work informed SETL's approach to user-facing trading interfaces and contributed to the broader product strategy.
Tags
SETL OpenCSD
SETL Truechain
