Uber, E*Trade Vets to Launch No-Fee Crypto Exchange

A new cryptocurrency exchange is set to launch with no-fee trading – and it's got some notable backers behind it.

Voyager, according to a report from Fortune, is founded by the co-founder of Uber, Oscar Salazar, as well as one of the ride-hailing app's early investors, Philip Eytan. Voyager's CEO is Stephen Ehrlich, the former CEO and founder of retail brokerage Lightspeed Financial, who also previously ran the professional trading arm for online stock broker E*Trade before it was bought by Lightspeed.

The focus on no-fee trading is a notable one, putting Voyager in the same class as trading app Robinhood – that is, seeking to upend the market's status quo by stripping away some of the costs associated with trading cryptocurrencies.

To start, Voyager plans to list 15 cryptocurrencies, drawn from the list of the 25 best-performing networks, including bitcoin, ethereum and bitcoin cash, among others.

Ehrlich told Fortune that Voyager is "leaning towards" including such cryptocurrencies as XRP and Stellar's lumens, which are not listed by major U.S. exchanges so far.

"If you see it being traded today by some of the most prominent players, we will definitely have those plus some," Ehrlich said.

Beta testing of the platform begins this week, the company told Fortune, and traders will be able to download the exchange's app by the end of October. Voyager also intends to add support for crypto news and analysis, as well as additional tools for the institutional investor segment.

According to Voyager, the exchange is in the process of securing licenses in U.S. states. "We don't think crypto has been adopted yet by the masses in the United States," Ehrlich was quoted as saying.