Osttra Adds Crypto to Post-Trade Services

Osttra, the joint venture created by IHS Markit and CME Group, says in response to increasing institutional focus on crypto trading, it has expanded it FX post-trade services, Traiana and MarkitServ, to support trade capture, matching and allocation of crypto assets.

The firm says the enhancement allows firms to bring the same transparency, risk management and control to these new instruments that they apply to established asset classes.

The service supports the most heavily traded crypto assets including Bitcoin, Ether, LightCoin and USDC, along with other liquid coins as they are adopted by institutions, in both spot and OTC NDF (cash settled) instruments.

While Osttra cites increased institutional interest in cryptocurrencies, it says to date, many institutions have suffered from operational challenges as the new instruments are typically not integrated with existing risk and processing systems. This results in a heavy manual trade booking overhead, representing significant operational and financial risk, it adds.

By bridging the new distributed ledger technology that underpins crypto assets with existing operational ecosystems, Osttra claims its new service helps customers overcome many of these challenges. Firms trading crypto assets on electronic platforms, by voice, or by direct API are able to receive post-trade notification messages directly into their enterprise risk or front office systems via existing integrations, giving real-time visibility of exposures. Additionally, where firms rely on custodian or prime broker services, customers can also benefit from automated trade processing using Osttra’s custodian and PB messaging, matching and allocation network.

“As institutional crypto trading gains traction, we are actively working to increase the breadth of our crypto connectivity by integrating post trade notification feeds from the largest crypto liquidity providers,” the firm says.