• Dark pools executed approximately 13.53% of US equity volume last month, down 22 bps from December’s 13.75%
• Dark-pool average daily volume fell 3.86% m/m, to 1.47 billion shares, while consolidated ADV declined 2.31% m/m
• Block ATSs were among the worst-performing pools last month while it was a mixed bag for single-dealer platforms
• Apex Fintech Solutions announced that it has acquired PDQ Enterprises, the parent company of CODA ATS
• Hidden orders on lit markets executed 8.03% of US volume in December, up 5 bps from November.
Year-in-Review (Special Section Begins on Page 8):
• Dark pools rebounded from last year’s 11-year low, with market share rising 24 bps to 13.44%
• Market-maker platforms grew to nearly 30% of total dark pool volume in 2021, a record high, while bulge-bracket dark-pool market share dropped the most, falling to 47.16%, an all-time low
• We also added two new dark-pool categories this year given ownership changes for two ATSs: exchange and broker/exchange consortium, replacing our previous broker consortium category
• Several pools experienced ownership shifts and updated their operations to stay competitive
• Block activity made up just 7.16% of total ATS volume in 2021, an all-time low
