Appital integrated Citadel Securities as a liquidity provider on 4 September 2026, enabling buy-side traders to price and execute block orders immediately rather than waiting up to two days for matching interest.

The platform, launched three years ago to automate equities block trading, now routes orders through a continuous risk-pricing feed from Citadel Securities rather than relying solely on episodic indications of interest.

What does the integration change for block execution?

The partnership compresses the discovery-to-execution window from days to seconds. Mark Badyra, Appital's founder and chief executive, told Markets Media: "Buy-side liquidity is naturally episodic. But Citadel is there every moment and every single day, and this reliable element is key."

Under the previous model, buy-side desks called high-touch sales traders to gauge interest before hitting the market. That workflow carried information leakage risk and time lag ranging from half a day to two days, during which blocks often traded away, Badyra said.

How does the workflow operate technically?

• Order size range: from large-in-scale (LIS) thresholds under MiFID II transparency waivers through to multiple days' average daily volume (ADV)
• Previously executable blocks: half or more of a stock's ADV
• New threshold: smaller orders qualify because pricing and execution happen in one step
• Order entry: must reside within the client's EMS, which uploads to Appital

Badyra said the system prices all submitted orders for immediate execution, something fund managers cannot get elsewhere. He added: "This is continuous and live, so clients are able to price any order with zero information leakage, which is unique."

Who sees the order information?

Citadel Securities receives no pre-trade or post-trade data, Badyra claimed. "Citadel does not see anything pre-trade or even post-trade after an execution, and clients remain anonymous," he said.

Brian Guckian, Appital's chief business development officer, said the design eliminates spoofing risk. He told Markets Media: "The order has to be within your EMS, which uploads into Appital, and there is visibility on the risk price."

Marko Taric, head of EMEA semi-systematic equities at Citadel Securities, said in a statement: "Appital is giving buy-side firms more choice in how they source and access institutional liquidity at scale, and helping them execute with greater flexibility and confidence."

How does Appital frame the market-structure impact?

Guckian described the partnership as a further digitization of the high-touch sales trader. He argued that the top five investment banks carry balance sheet for risk pricing, but none of that is digitized. Guckian said: "We are creating a new type of market structure and it is a huge step change."

Badyra compared the shift to Robinhood's effect on retail execution. "We are effectively doing the same on an institutional scale," he said.

What growth metrics does Appital report?

• Client base: 57 institutions, representing roughly one quarter of global equity assets
• EMS connections: five, up from one at launch
• Market coverage: 23 European markets, starting from UK equities
• Trading venue connectivity: LSE Turquoise among those linked
• 2025 liquidity: up 50% year-on-year
• Average ADV per trade in 2025: four days

The platform said on LinkedIn that liquidity grew across every market cap and participation deepened in 2025.

What comes next for the platform?

Appital targets a U.S. launch within six months, with discussions underway with a couple of alternative trading systems (ATSs), according to Badyra. The longer-term objective covers equity capital markets and, eventually, additional asset classes.

Guckian framed the current iteration as a transition: "We have moved from Appital version 1 being a 'nice to have', to version 2 becoming a utility on every client's front end."

The new capability is currently rolling out in controlled form to Appital's institutional client network ahead of broader availability.