MarketAxess Shakes Up US Credit with Mid-X Launch – Liquidity Just Got Smarter

Wall Street's electronic trading giant just fired a shot across the bond market's bow.

MarketAxess rolls out Mid-X—a game-changer for US credit traders starving for tighter spreads. The platform targets that messy middle ground between liquid benchmarks and illiquid odd-lots where most alpha gets lost in spread costs.

Why this isn't just another algo veneer

Unlike legacy systems recycling 2010-era matching logic, Mid-X leverages predictive fills and conditional liquidity pools. Translation: fewer failed trades, less information leakage—finally, tech that doesn't treat credit traders like forex rookies.

The cynical take

Another 'innovation' that'll pad MarketAxess' commission stats while buy-side desks pretend it solves their liquidity woes. But hey—at least it's not another blockchain-for-bonds PowerPoint.

MarketAxess Holdings, the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, today announced multiple enhancements to its dealer-initiated protocols, including the launch of Mid-X in US Credit and enhancements to its Dealer RFQ protocol.

Last year, MarketAxess successfully launched an enhanced Mid-X protocol, the firm’s anonymous mid-point matching session, for emerging markets and eurobonds.

Second quarter 2025 volumes from Mid-X matching sessions in emerging markets and eurobonds have increased 70% compared to the second quarter of 2024. Mid-X sessions are powered by CP+, the AI powered real-time predictive pricing engine for Global Credit and Rates markets and will now include a new one-step submit and trade protocol.

“Today’s market environment calls for easier access to liquidity, increased workflow efficiency and better tools for dealers to recycle risk generated by increased portfolio trading,” said Steve Tait, Head of US Dealer Execution Business at MarketAxess. “By providing dealers with the level of support, tools and technology on par with what they are receiving from sales desks and inter-dealer brokers, we believe that we have been able to create a more inclusive trading environment where dealers feel increasingly comfortable engaging with our growing list of protocols and enhancements.”

Source: MarketAxess