With the launch of the over-the-counter trading desk for institutional
With the launch of the over-the-counter trading desk for institutional investors, the San Francisco headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is making efforts towards attracting more institutional investors.
As per sources, Coinbase has introduced the OTC trading desk as a response to increasing demand by institutional investors. The counter will cater to the investment class. Coinbase aims to become a versatile platform that comes under the regulatory framework laid out by the US authorities.
The Director of Institutional Sales at Coinbase, Christine Sandler elaborated on the new offering:
“We launched our OTC business as a complement to our exchange business because we found a lot of institutions were using OTC as an on-ramp for crypto trading.”
Sandler went on to add that the platform will enable institutional clients to leverage the Coinbase crypto exchange as well as the OTC services. She also mentioned that in time to come the OTC desk would be integrated with Coinbases’s custody platform called the Coinbase Custody.
Coinbase’s OTC service is set to compete with other services provided by the Gemini Exchange and Goldman Sachs-backed Circle.
Sandler mentioned that:
“Circle and some others have complementary products, but they also trade on a proprietary basis, so they are the counterparty to each transaction, while we, in fact, are matching client orders.”
Sandler adds that the slump in the crypto market might have scared off many investors. However, she is of the view that those investors did not understand the real potential cryptocurrencies. Sandler believes that the believers are in for the long haul.
She iterated:
“From our crypto first clients, we hear that nothing has changed concerning technology, and they’re still absolutely committed to crypto … to the technology. I think that there’s one small silver lining to this volatility … [it’s] that crypto’s been front and center of the mainstream financial media for the last few weeks. I think that has driven … forced a lot of institutions to think, is this an opportunistic investment point for crypto at this point.”