One of the leading over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks which belongs to the US-based cryprocurrency company Circle, wrote in a report that its trades hit a total volume of 24 billion dollars in 2018.
According to the statement that was published on 3rd of January, the trade desk of Circle executed more than 10 thousand OTC trades over the year with 600 counterparties spanning over 36 assets and reached a total volume of 24 billion dollars in notional volume.
Over-the-counter (OTC) trading gives traders the ability to exchange without the interference of third parties. This service is attractive to institutional clients because of the privacy. OTC trading desks are not only preferred by institutional investors but also by high net worth individuals.
The fintech firm is claiming that it has become a core liquidity provider of the entire crypto ecosystem. This claim rests upon their partnerings with over 1000 institutional clients. Circle has also expanded its team with 150 new hires.
Circle has a very positive look about the next year and the 2019 market as it stated:
“This year, we anticipate further incremental growth in institutional adoption catalyzed by stable coin usage, advancements in institutional custody solutions, increasing regulatory clarity particularly in the U.S., and improvements and innovation in core crypto infrastructure.”
After Circle and Gemini, Coinbase also launched their own OTC desk in November to appeal to the institutional investment class after the increasing demand. Since last year institutional investors as a whole have shifted to higher liquidity OTC markets.
In their plans for 2019 the firm said that they expect growth in institutional adoption catalyzed by stablecoin usage, advancements in institutional custody solutions, increasing regulatory clarity particularly in the US, and improvements and innovation in core crypto infrastructure. Per the statement, Circle said:
“As we approach 2019 and work closely with Coinbase in the establishment of CENTRE, we expect to see more issuers join CENTRE and launch issuance and redemption, more fiat currencies supported using the CENTRE protocols and governance scheme, and more products launch that leverage CENTRE fiat tokens to create value for their own customers,”
