- Boutique funding financial institution Cowen Inc. will reportedly provide its institutional shoppers spot bitcoin buying and selling by means of a brand new enterprise unit.
- “This will be a meaningful division,” its co-president mentioned.
- Standard Custody & Trust Co. will act because the financial institution’s cryptocurrency custodian.
Wall Street funding financial institution Cowen Inc. has debuted a brand new digital asset unit to provide spot bitcoin and cryptocurrency buying and selling to institutional buyers, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
The agency leveraged its small footprint to front-run its larger rivals because the finance hub seeks to embrace the burgeoning asset class’ spot markets. Goldman Sachs executed its first over-the-counter (OTC) bitcoin choices commerce earlier this week, attempting to plug into derivatives-based choices as uncertainties and complexities round spot merchandise maintain again developments.
“We have a big first mover advantage in this space,” Cowen co-president Dan Charney advised Bloomberg. “Because of our culture, we’re able to work with our legal and compliance and our regulators in a way that maybe our bigger competitors aren’t, and we’re just able to get to solutions faster.”
Cowen’s new enterprise unit will goal primarily the financial institution’s hedge fund, mutual fund and household workplace shoppers, per the report. Assets bought by these establishments might be held beneath the custody of institutional-grade platform Standard Custody & Trust Co.
It is unclear whether or not shoppers might be in a position to withdraw any bitcoin they buy, however provided that Cowen will act as a custodian it seems shoppers won’t have that possibility. Without correct self-custody, these establishments might be restricted to the potential worth appreciation of the asset and never give you the option to retailer wealth with out third-party threat or transact worth freely. However, such use instances are arguably extra compelling for people.
Cowen’s new unit additionally plans to provide derivatives and futures buying and selling of cryptocurrency, lending and institutional entry to decentralized finance platforms and non-fungible tokens, per the report. The unit launched with 40 staff from the financial institution but it surely reportedly plans to greater than double its workers quickly.
