Bittrex launches OTC trading desk for institutional clients

Bittrex releases frozen funds from U.S. sanctioned jurisdictions

Cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex is launching an over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk catered to institutional clients.

The trading desk will support nearly 200 cryptocurrencies including the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple. The platform, which will facilitate trades of more than $250,000, will go live at 6pm UTC on Monday.

In a statement, Bittrex CEO Bill Shihara called the new offering a “game-changing trading option,” with emphasis being focused on the extensive range of tokens the platform will be offering.

Shihara added: “With one of the most extensive selections of digital assets of any OTC desk available, this offering will be another way for Bittrex to further advance adoption of blockchain technology worldwide, while also providing our customers with price certainty and a fast and easy way to trade large blocks of digital assets.”

Bittrex is the latest exchange to offer an OTC desk to institutional clients after Coinbase launched their own platform in November and Poloniex released theirs in December.

Institutional clients trade over-the-counter to avoid slippage on an exchange. Slippage is where an executed order shifts price due to a lack of liquidity, causing the average buy-price to be inflated.

Aside from OTC desks, the over-the-counter space is seen as the Wild West in cryptocurrency, with a wealth of brokers and intermediaries representing purchasing parties in order to get a deal struck. The influx of OTC desks will help increase the flow of institutional money into the cryptocurrency space.

Click here to read Coin Rivet’s guide on OTC trading.

https://dev.coinrivet.com/guide/what-is-over-the-counter-cryptocurrency-trading/

Oliver Knight

Londoner ‘Ollie’ graduated from Birmingham City University with a journalism degree in 2016. He combines his writing with his love of crypto and blockchain here at Coin Rivet, saying “It disrupts well-established institutions (banks) while giving an avenue to the less fortunate to achieve financial freedom.” Like all true Londoners, his pet hate is… “People standing on the left-hand side of the escalators on the Tube!”.