A huge surge in over-the-counter (OTC) trading popularity drove major cryptocurrency exchange Binance’s $78 million Q1 profits, crypto news outlet Decrypt Media reported on April 17. Speaking in an interview, CFO Wei Zhou said OTC, which is a method of wholesale cryptocurrency trading for large-scale investors, accompanied a volume uptick as bitcoin (BTC) rose almost $1,300 at the start of this month. “Last month we saw a lot more volume than, say, three months ago,” he told the publication, continuing: “This was mainly due to the increase in price of Bitcoin and altcoins over the past few months. We’ve witnessed …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price surge last week has led Chinese traders not only return to trading but pay a premium for doing so, social media-based news account cnLedger reported on April 7. Reproducing price spreads from cryptocurrency exchanges Huobi and OKEx, cnLedger revealed an increasingly common practice among Chinese traders who wish to acquire Bitcoin. Since China formally banned cryptocurrency trading in 2017, investors have had few options. Purchasing stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) via over-the-counter (OTC) services and converting them to other cryptocurrencies has become the principal method, cnLedger noted. Now, in the wake of a bullish week for Bitcoin …

Cumberland, the Chicago-based cryptocurrency trading unit of DRW Holdings LLC, reported a sharp, sudden spike in large-scale Bitcoin (BTC) transactions the evening of Monday, April 1. The company revealed the data in a tweet on April 4. The series of thirteen orders that the trading desk tracked all exceeded 1,000 BTC (about $4.9 million at press time). Cumberland — which has been operating an over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trading desk since 2014 — noted in the tweet that: “The post-trade analysis of Monday evening’s price action revealed a series of large bids (>1,000 BTC per order) within a 1 hour span, …

The United States-based operator of crypto exchange Huobi, Hbus, has formed a new team to launch institutional products and services, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on March 27. The company’s new team will be led by Katelyn Mew, who previously worked at a global investment company BlackRock VP and is currently heading Hbus' sales and marketing department. The other director is Oren Blonstein, Huobi's vice president of technology, formerly of Tora Trading Services and Caspian. According to the announcement, Hbus is evaluating several potential services designed for institutional clients, including token lending and over-the-counter trading. Moreover, the …

Coinbase Custody, the custodial tool of United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase, has completed its first over-the-counter (OTC) trade from cold storage, according to a blog post published on March 13. The post reveals that Coinbase Custody is now directly integrated with Coinbase’s OTC desk, which enables customers to use the OTC desk to price and confirm trades prior to moving funds. The product purportedly provides easy and immediate liquidity on users’ offline funds, meaning that it now takes less time for Custody users to get access to their funds and avoid the waiting period to access them. In February, co-founder …

The peer-to-peer (p2p), over-the-counter (OTC) branch of Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has added support for Ripple (XRP). The company announced the news in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on March 6. XRP joins Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), Eos (EOS) and Huobi Token (HT) in the list of assets supported by Huobi’s OTC trading platform. According to the company’s website, Huobi OTC aims to offer an exchange bridge between fiat currencies and digital assets. Specifically, the platform serves as an escrow to users who post buy or sell ads on the platform and then complete transactions exchanging crypto …

Digital payments firm Wirex has released a major platform update, Wirex 3.0, adding ten new fiat currencies, according to an official press release on Feb. 27. From now, Wirex users in the European Economic Area (EEA) can access “unconditional access” to over-the-counter rates for cryptocurrency exchanges, as well as interbank rates for traditional currency exchanges. The press release clarifies that the update also brings these new features to residents of the Asia-Pacific region and Canada, letting said users operate their Wirex accounts in their local fiat currency for the first time. According to the statement on Wirex’s “Money Management” page, …

Institutional investment is increasingly being seen as the future of crypto trading, with both Binance and Bittrex launching their own dedicated over-the-counter (OTC) desks in January. The desk launches come after Morgan Stanley published a bullish report in November, showing a strong pattern of institutional investment for Bitcoin. The latest developments indicate that some of the world’s largest exchanges are receiving increased demand from institutional investors, for whom OTC represents a lucrative opportunity. Cointelegraph takes a look at the latest launches and OTC news. Binance launches dedicated OTC desk On Jan. 23, the number-one ranked cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced the …

South Korea's major virtual currency exchange Bithumb has officially launched an over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk under the Ortus brand, according to a press release published on Feb. 7. Hong Kong-based entity Bithumb Global Limited owns the rights to the Ortus brand, which specializes in services for institutional investors. After completing Know-Your-Customer and Anti-Money Laundering inspections, institutional investors will be able to utilize Ortus services, including monitored funds transfers and access to an OTC trading desk. OTC trading is an option for institutional investors looking to perform large-volume trades, as it allows them to conduct direct trades between each other as …

Major global crypto exchange Huobi has reported a 100 percent growth in trading volume in 2018 over the 2017, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Feb. 7. The Singapore-headquartered company has reportedly expanded its staff from 400 employees in early 2018 to more than 1,300 people by 2019, with 15 offices in 12 countries and regions, as Huobi CEO Leon Li told Cointelegraph. Huobi’s over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk has reportedly become one of the most traded OTC platforms worldwide, while the recently launched service Huobi Cloud has managed to enter in more than 100 partnerships over six …

Disclaimer: This article has been updated to note that regulated crypto CFDs have previously been available in the U.K. United Kingdom crypto liquidity startup B2C2 OTC Ltd. has received approval from the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Wednesday, Jan. 30, according to a record in the FCA’s register. A separate press release notes that B2C2, which also provides electronic over-the-counter (OTC) trading, can now offer contracts for difference (CFDs) to eligible counterparties and professional clients. Such licenses are not unique or exclusive to crypto-related companies and allow recipients to offer traditional CFDs, in addition to crypto-based ones. B2C2’s licensure …

Alipay and WeChat Pay reportedly requested that crypto exchange Huobi remove their payment services from its over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk, local media agency Sina reported on Jan. 25. Major Chinese digital payments providers, Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay, have reportedly sent legal letters to Huobi, claiming that using both their services and logos on the exchange’s OTC market is unauthorized. According to information acquired by Sina, both Alipay and WeChat Pay have not provided Huobi with its payment services, nor given it permission to use their respective trademarks. However, Huobi’s OTC trading platform reportedly allows users to upload QR …