This is GOOD NEWS as competition is always a good thing. " MEMX Gains SEC Approval to Trade Options U.S. Options Exchange MEMX Options to Launch in 2023 August 09, 2022 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time JERSEY CITY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MEMX, a market operator founded by a diverse group of participants to benefit all investors, today announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has approved MEMX’s rule filing to launch a platform for trading listed options. The U.S. options exchange, MEMX Options, will leverage the strengths of MEMX’s data-centric exchange architecture and state-of-the-art infrastructure. The exchange will use a price time-model and is expected to launch in early 2023. [...] "
There is merit to competition in and of itself, but there are now far too many venues that offer little to nothing that's truly different or innovative. The result is a more fragmented, complex market that is easier for HFT's to game, not to mention the ever-growing spam of mostly-useless data onto the OPRA feed. Markets function best when a large number of buyers and sellers are in the same place at the same time, and this undermined by the profusion of contracts (strikes and expiration dates have soared) and exchanges in the options market today. The result is far more slippage/spread for the end-user, liquidity-taking trader.