In its recent analysis published Dec. 17, Research firm Diar has found that institutional investors have shifted towards higher liquidity over-the-counter (OTC) physical Bitcoin (BTC) markets.
Diar noted growing investment in over-the-counter funds like that offered by major american cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. As per the report, Coinbase outperformed Grayscale’s Bitcoin investment trust (GBTC) on over-the-counter markets in terms of BTC trade volume. Whereas over-the-counter trade volumes are dwarfed by non-OTC investment, it's still important as over-the-counter markets are solely open for 31 % of annual tradable hours.
Grayscale reportedly registered $216 million in net inflows into its Bitcoin investment firm within the initial 3 quarters of 2018, giving Grayscale custody of over 1 % of Bitcoin’s current supply. As antecedently reported, GBTC is currently holding over 203,000 BTC.
In 2018, Coinbase reportedly saw a 20 % increase in BTC trading volume throughout over-the-counter markets hours, whereas GBTC saw a 35 % drop by volumes comparison with the identical period in 2017.
“With no time stop on trading, establishments and large money would need access round the clock from fears of a rude awakening in a market that is still extremely volatile, despite that decreasing to new lows this year. On the flip side, this might even be a hurdle for establishments that would need amped up man power to determine to open-risk,” the report any explains.
Max Keidun, CEO of virtual currency exchange HodlHodl that additionally provides an over-the-counter table service, reportedly same that giant order requests have increased exponentially in 2018 “doubling month-on-month.” "It's quite harder than usual to find a seller at current costs," Keidun expressed.
As Top Market Group antecedently reported, Coinbase launched over-the-counter trading for institutional customers in late Nov. The move reportedly took place in conjunction with an enhanced demand for over-the-counter crypto trading from institutional players. The exchange supposedly considers providing each exchange and over-the-counter business as a “huge benefit” to their customers.
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