LMAX’s ‘4% growth’ starts from a revenue base 46% below its 2024 headline

LMAX Group’s statement that adjusted gross revenue rose 4% in 2025 cannot be read as a comparison with the $201 million gross-revenue headline it published for 2024. Reversing the stated growth rate produces an implied 2024 adjusted base of about $107.7 million—$93.3 million, or 46.4%, below the earlier headline. The same problem is larger for earnings: $25 million of adjusted EBITDA, said to be 11% higher, implies a prior-year adjusted base of roughly $22.5 million, not the $101 million EBITDA figure highlighted for 2024.[1][2]

The gap does not by itself indicate an accounting error. LMAX moved from presenting exceptional 2024 results dominated by crypto-related gains to publishing adjusted 2025 measures intended to describe underlying performance. The problem is comparability. Its September 2026 release gives percentage growth without a numerical bridge from the audited 2024 presentation, leaving readers to reconstruct a base that is radically different from the number most prominently associated with the prior year.[1][2]

A $65.5 million 'other' line transformed the 2024 picture

LMAX’s 2024 annual report decomposes $190 million of net revenue into four operating presentations: $17.6 million for LMAX Exchange, $86.4 million for LMAX Global, $20.5 million for LMAX Digital and $65.5 million classified as “Other”. The report says the other line rose from $12.3 million because of realised gains from selling crypto-asset inventory and a share of profits from associates. It also identifies realised gains on PYTH tokens as trading revenue under the group’s accounting policy.[1]

That means more than a third of the $190 million net-revenue headline—34.5%—came from a bucket outside the three named trading businesses. The $65.5 million other contribution was also more than three times LMAX Digital’s $20.5 million and nearly four times LMAX Exchange’s $17.6 million. The group was entitled to recognise realised gains and associate profits under its accounting policies. But those items answer a different question from the recurring commission, funding, spread, execution and service economics of an exchange and brokerage network.[1]

The growth percentages reveal the missing adjusted bases

LMAX reported $112 million of adjusted gross revenue for 2025, up 4%. The arithmetic is $112 million divided by 1.04, producing $107.69 million. Compared with the 2024 press-release gross-revenue figure of $201 million, that inferred base is 46.4% lower. Compared with the annual report’s $190 million net-revenue highlight, it is 43.3% lower. Neither comparison is perfectly like for like—the $201 million and $190 million figures themselves use different labels—but that is precisely why an explicit reconciliation is necessary.[1][2]

For EBITDA, $25 million divided by 1.11 produces a 2024 adjusted comparator of $22.52 million. The 2024 annual report highlighted EBITDA of $101 million, so the adjusted base embedded in the 2025 growth statement is 77.7% lower. The difference is too large to be treated as rounding, currency translation or terminology alone. It strongly indicates that the 2025 adjustment framework removes a substantial portion of the crypto-related and other exceptional contribution recorded in 2024, although the release does not disclose enough detail to allocate every dollar.[1][2]

Adjusted reporting may be more useful, but it needs a bridge

There is a legitimate reason to emphasise adjusted performance after an unusual gain. A one-off disposal of token inventory can make statutory growth look spectacular without showing how the core franchise is progressing. An underlying measure can help investors assess repeatable revenue, operating leverage and capacity to service debt or fund investment. LMAX’s 2025 release also reports record $8.2 trillion trading volume, up 28%, which supports the proposition that activity grew even after the exceptional 2024 items are stripped out.[2]

Yet an adjusted measure becomes less informative when the company does not define it fully, show each exclusion and reconcile it to the prior published period. Readers cannot tell whether the $93.3 million difference between the 2024 gross headline and the inferred adjusted base consists solely of token gains and associate profits, or also reflects currency conversion, gross-versus-net presentation, interest, acquisition effects, reclassifications or other adjustments. They also cannot reproduce the 11% EBITDA growth claim from the annual report without reverse-engineering it.[1][2]

The 2026 interim release changes the metric again

LMAX’s half-year 2026 statement reports adjusted gross profit of $75 million, up 51%, and adjusted EBITDA of $33 million, up 162%. It does not report adjusted gross revenue in the headline table. Gross profit, gross revenue and net revenue are not interchangeable, particularly in a group whose cost of sales includes commissions, clearing and introducing-broker costs and whose trading revenue can include inventory gains. A reader comparing the three releases therefore encounters a sequence of $201 million gross revenue, $190 million net revenue, $112 million adjusted gross revenue and $75 million adjusted gross profit without a single continuous bridge.[1][2][3]

The interim performance may still be very strong. Reversing the 51% growth rate gives an implied first-half 2025 adjusted gross-profit base of about $49.7 million, while the EBITDA comparison implies about $12.6 million. Those figures indicate a marked acceleration in the first half of 2026. They do not resolve how the company’s current adjusted definitions relate to the 2024 audited numbers or whether the adjustment policy has remained constant across releases.[3]

What the public record proves—and what it does not

The evidence proves that LMAX’s 2025 growth percentages use prior-year bases far below the 2024 headline results. It also proves that 2024 included a $65.5 million other contribution linked to realised crypto-inventory gains and associate profits. It does not prove that LMAX misstated either period, that the adjusted measures are improper or that the exceptional gains had no economic value. Token inventory was an asset of the group, and realised proceeds can generate real cash.[1][2]

The unresolved issue is disclosure quality. A complete bridge would state 2024 statutory gross revenue, net revenue and EBITDA in the presentation currency; identify each 2025 adjustment; reconcile the adjusted comparator to the audited accounts; and explain whether the 2026 gross-profit measure uses the same perimeter. It would also separate recurring trading and funding income from token disposals, associate profit and interest so that volume growth can be compared with the revenue it actually generated.[1][2][3]

How to build a genuinely comparable revenue bridge

The implied 2024 adjusted revenue base follows directly from the percentage: if 2025 adjusted gross revenue rose by 4%, divide the 2025 adjusted value by 1.04 to obtain the comparator. That exercise produces approximately $107.7 million, materially different from the earlier $201 million gross-revenue headline. The difference is not evidence that the issuer retrospectively removed $93 million of cash, or that its statutory accounts fail to balance. The two descriptions refer to different profit-and-loss definitions, one of which excludes or adjusts items that the earlier publication displayed prominently.[1][2]

To decide whether the underlying trading franchise grew, an investor needs an audited reconciliation starting with the same perimeter in 2024 and 2025, including crypto-asset inventory gains, share of associate results, non-recurring items and any changes in consolidation. A percentage applied to an adjusted denominator cannot be used to validate a different gross numerator. A properly matched series would also distinguish revenues earned from continuing clients from treasury or fair-value movements, rather than presuming that all revenue growth is trading-volume growth.[1][2]

The accounting labels make the bridge especially necessary. “Other income” can contain items with very different persistence, risk and cash characteristics. A realised token-inventory gain depends on the cost basis and disposal price of an asset held by the group; a share of associate profit depends on another entity’s accounting result; interest income depends on balances and rates. Combining those items with operating revenue may be valid in statutory presentation, but a growth claim based on an adjusted comparator needs to show exactly which components were removed and whether any related costs were also adjusted.[1][2]

Until that bridge is published, the defensible conclusion is narrow but important: LMAX’s “4% growth” did not begin at the $201 million figure that dominated its prior-year announcement. It began at an implied $107.7 million adjusted base. That distinction changes 2025 from an apparent collapse against the headline into modest underlying growth—but it also makes the unshown reconciliation the most important number in the release.[1][2]

Report an error or submit an update