World’s biggest interdealer broker, TP ICAP announced on Tuesday the launch of a cryptocurrency trading platform with Fidelity Investments and Standard Chartered’s digital assets custody unit.
With this venture, the company sought to make trading crypto similar to that of traditional assets like bonds, stock, and foreign exchange, according to reports. The platform will offer post-trade infrastructure with a set of digital asset custodians and separate execution and settlement, thus reducing risk for institutional players.
As the platform awaited approval from the Financial Conduct Authority [FCA], it will initially only add Bitcoin to its list and later expand it with Ethereum and other cryptos.
According to the co-head of digital assets at TP ICAP, Duncan Trenholme,
“Investor interest in this new asset class has exploded dramatically in the last six to eight months.In most of our conversations with clients, they want a separation of custodial roles from execution capabilities which is opposite to the models that exist currently.”
The company had launched Bitcoin futures and options on CME in 2019 and is on its way to launch other derivative products including total return swaps and non-deliverable forwards.
This announcement from the brokerage giant followed the strict regulatory norms announced in various countries around cryptocurrencies and associated businesses. The interest of the institutional investors sparked last year when the bitcoin bull run had just begun. Recently, MicroStrategy announced an investment of $489 million in Bitcoin as a part of its “buy the dip” strategy. However, other institutions have remained wary of Bitcoin given the current volatility.
