Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by volume, has started off with a crypto-to-crypto over-the-counter trading desk. This will now allow large-volume traders to trade cryptocurrencies listed on the Binance platform with transactions settled via their Binance accounts. Binance OTC was officially launched yesterday and an announcement was made by Binance on their blog.
Binance states that those users who are on ‘Level 2’, have a verified account, and are making a minimum trade of at least 20 BTC can avail the Binance OTC service. Binance highlighted several advantages of using their OTC trading desk for crypto-to-crypto transactions, highlighting the possibility of trading larger quantities in a single trade, all the trades can be cleared at just one price, and trades would remain private as order books would not be involved.
Binance introduced this service a blog post, stating:
Binance is happy to announce the launch of our crypto-to-crypto over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk. Our OTC desk allows Binance users to trade larger amounts of many cryptocurrencies listed on the exchange, with transactions being settled via their Binance accounts. Email us at tradedesk1@binance.com to know more about Binance OTC services.
Earlier this month, Binance was in the news for having started off with Binance Jersey, their fiat-to-crypto cryptocurrency exchange for European markets. The platform supports the Euro (EUR) as well as the British Pound (GBP). The company also managed to track the funds of the hacker who had transferred Cryptopia cryptocurrency exchange to Binance - and blocked his account, thereby locking the funds.
This is a service which is offered by various other major crypto exchanges and Binance did not want to miss out on it. Last week, US-based cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex had also announced it is setting up an OTC trading desk. Circle’s trading desk had processed transactions worth $24 Billion in 2018. Research from Diar indicated that many big-money players were now preferring using Over The Counter trading desks over old-school trading methods. Diar had stated:
“Institutional cryptocurrency trading on traditional exchanges have lost ground in volumes as Bitcoin is being welcomed into major outfit portfolios this year, with more slated to come online in 2019.”
There is a belief in the markets that big-money players (institutional investors) will drive the markets forward in 2019. This was initially expected in 2018, but the crypto-crash of 2018 demotivated these investors. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) had termed 2018 as a ‘correction year’ for cryptocurrencies. However, 2018 was also the year that the adoption of cryptocurrencies, as well as the number of Bitcoin ATMs grew exponentially.
Expectations from the cryptocurrency markets in 2019 are that the year would be kinder than 2018 and that a price recovery would finally take place - attracting the interest of high net worth investors! Stay tuned with us for more updates and news stories from the world of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology, only on Cryptoground!