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Revenue
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2025
Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]  
Revenue Revenue
Revenue Recognition
The Company enters into contracts with its clients to provide a stand-ready connection to its electronic marketplaces, which facilitates the execution of trades by its clients. The access to the Company’s electronic marketplaces includes market data, continuous pricing data refreshes and the processing and reporting of trades thereon, which are highly interrelated services. The stand-ready connection to the electronic marketplaces is considered a single performance obligation satisfied over time as the client simultaneously receives and consumes the benefit from the Company’s performance as access is provided. This performance obligation constitutes a series of services that are substantially the same in nature and are provided over time using the same measure of progress.
For its services, the Company may earn subscription fees for granting access to its electronic marketplaces. Subscription fees, which are generally fixed fees, are recognized as revenue on a monthly basis, in the period that access is provided. The frequency of subscription fee billings varies from monthly to annually, depending on contract terms.
The Company also earns transaction fees and/or commissions from transactions executed on the Company’s electronic marketplaces, including the basis point commissions earned on the monthly average daily balance (“ADB”) of money market fund investments made through its ICD Portal, and commission revenue from its electronic and voice brokerage services on a riskless principal basis. Riskless principal revenues are derived on matched principal transactions where revenues are earned on the spread between the buy and sell price of the transacted product.
Transaction fees and commissions are generated both on a variable and fixed price basis and vary by geographic region, product type and trade size. Fixed monthly transaction fees and commissions, or monthly transaction fees and commission minimums, are earned on a monthly basis in the period the stand-ready trading services are provided and are generally billed monthly. For variable transaction fees and commissions, the Company charges its clients amounts calculated based on the mix of products traded and the volume of transactions executed. Variable transaction fee and commission revenue associated with a particular trade is recognized and recorded on a trade-date basis when the individual trade occurs and is generally billed when the trade settles or is billed monthly. Variable commission revenue based upon a clients’ ADB invested in money market funds during a calendar month is recorded monthly and the rates billed may vary by money market fund and by the total level of funds invested. Variable discounts or rebates on transaction fees and commissions are earned and applied monthly or quarterly, resolved within the same reporting period and are recorded as a reduction to revenue in the period the relevant trades occur.
The Company also earns fees from an affiliate of LSEG relating to the sale of market data to LSEG, which distributes that data. Included in these fees, which are billed quarterly, are real-time market data fees which are recognized monthly on a straight-line basis, as LSEG receives and consumes the benefit evenly over the contract period, as the data is provided. Also included in these fees are fees for historical data sets, which are recognized when the historical data set is provided to LSEG.
Significant judgments used in accounting for the Company’s market data agreement with LSEG include the following determinations:
•The provision of real-time market data feeds and historical data sets are distinct performance obligations.
•The performance obligations under this contract are recognized over time from the initial delivery of the data feeds until the end of the contract term or at a point in time upon delivery of each historical data set.
•The transaction prices for the performance obligations were determined by using an adjusted market assessment analysis. Inputs in this analysis included publicly available price lists for data sets provided by other companies, planned internal pricing strategies and other market data points and adjustments obtained through consultations with market data industry experts regarding estimating a standalone selling price for each performance obligation.
Some revenues earned by the Company have fixed fee components, such as monthly minimums or fixed monthly fees, and variable components, such as transaction-based fees and commissions. The breakdown of revenues between fixed and variable revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024 is as follows:
Three Months EndedThree Months Ended
March 31, 2025March 31, 2024
(dollars in thousands)(dollars in thousands)
Variable
Fixed
Variable
Fixed
Revenues
Transaction fees and commissions$378,757 $42,587 $298,262 $37,189 
Subscription fees460 55,317 470 49,211 
LSEG market data fees— 28,925 — 20,500 
Other792 2,839 362 2,745 
Total revenue$380,009 $129,668 $299,094 $109,645 
Deferred Revenue
Fees received by the Company which are not yet earned are included in deferred revenue on the condensed consolidated statements of financial condition until the revenue recognition criteria have been met. The revenue recognized and the remaining deferred revenue balances are shown below:
Amount
(dollars in thousands)
Deferred revenue balance - December 31, 2024$30,800 
New billings66,479 
Revenue recognized(50,382)
Effect of foreign currency exchange rate changes83 
Deferred revenue balance - March 31, 2025$46,980 
During the three months ended March 31, 2025, the Company recognized into revenue $15.2 million in deferred revenue that was deferred as of December 31, 2024. During the three months ended March 31, 2024, the Company recognized into revenue $15.8 million in deferred revenue that was deferred as of December 31, 2023.