Jane Street, Virtu, Join TP Icap Digital Assets Platform

Jane Street and Virtu Financial have committed to support TP Icap’s impending digital assets spot platform by becoming liquidity providers. The firm says the addition of the market makers will help provide the platform with “the tight pricing that clients expect and from brands they recognise and trust”.

The platform, which remains subject to registration with the UK Financial Conduct Authority, will feature a wholesale electronic OTC marketplace for spot crypto asset trading, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. It will also include post-trade infrastructure that provides straight through processing and payment netting services for executed trades into a network of digital asset custodians.

“TP Icap has long standing relationships across multiple asset classes with both Jane Street and Virtu,” says Simon Forster, co-head of digital assets at TP Icap. “We have been working with the digital assets teams of these businesses for some time so bringing their expertise and spot liquidity into our ecosystem is a natural evolution that reflects our shared commitment to this asset class. Having another two blue chip market makers on board at launch will help provide competitive and deep liquidity to our global network of clients who are looking to engage in crypto assets for the first time.“

Thomas Uhm of Jane Street, adds, “We are excited to help create robust trading networks across the crypto ecosystem, and TP Icap’s platform represents a significant new example. We at Jane Street have been applying our cross-asset expertise to provide liquidity across digital assets since 2017, and we’re glad to continue expanding the ways we can help develop the emerging crypto ecosystem. As more institutions look to interact with digital assets, offerings like TP ICAPs platform will help advance important conversations about achieving and managing exposure to digital assets.”

Elsewhere, Laine Litman of Virtu Financial, says, “For crypto assets to have a meaningful and broad adoption in capital markets across participants, there need to be top-tier platforms that address the needs of institutional participants. The launch of TP Icap’s digital assets spot platform is an exciting partnership opportunity for Virtu as it does that and is among the first of its kind. Clients can leverage the platform’s institutional-grade protocols, TP Icap’s long standing presence in capital markets and firms’ like Virtu’s experience as leading global market makers to integrate liquidity of digital assets into a trusted and familiar trading format.”