CoinJar, which entered the market in 2013 with a retail cryptocurrency platform, has launched a high-end digital currency trading platform, CoinJar Exchange.

Claiming to have the fastest exchange in Australia, Coinjar has designed the new exchange for institutional and sophisticated investors.

It will allow cryptocurrency traders to trade Bitcoin and Australian dollars against a small range of cryptocurrencies – Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple. All supported cryptocurrencies have their own Australian dollar pairs.

CoinJar head of institutional Jordan Michaelides says the company will be looking at other cryptocurrencies in future.

Michaelides says institutional investors are getting into cryptocurrency trading. “We are getting interest from market makers, hedge funds and proprietary trading companies,” he says.

“Traders are looking for more sophisticated ways to capitalise on the volatility of digital currency,” he says. CoinJar Exchange integrates buy and sell orders from other exchanges, providing greater market liquidity.

The exchange also has an open trading application programming interface, allowing developers to build algorithmic trading systems.

Security measures include storing 90 per cent of customers’ cryptocurrencies offline in “geographically redundant secure locations.”

Commentators in the sector have welcomed the development, saying there is a need for competition in the local cryptocurrency exchange market.

Michaelides says the original CoinJar offering has handled $1.5 billion of transaction from Bitcoin to fiat currency since it was introduced.