Markets
Standard Chartered’s crypto desk and Zodia Markets can coexist, CEO says — will traders understand? – DL News
- Standard Chartered is one of the first investment banks to offer spot Bitcoin and Ethereum to clients.
- The move appears to be in competition with Zodia Markets, a bank-backed company.
- Zodia Markets CEO Usman Ahmad says the move will provide traders with more options.
Six years ago, Ahmad Usman embarked on an experiment.
The banking veteran has set up a cryptocurrency trading company called Zodia Markets with investment from Standard Chartered, one of the UK’s biggest lenders.
The idea was to leverage Standard Chartered’s vaunted prowess in foreign exchange markets into a cryptocurrency trading desk that would attract institutional clients such as large hedge funds.
On paper, it seemed like a perfect marriage between an established market player and a bold new asset class.
However, last week, Standard Chartered threw a wrench into those plans when news emerged that the bank had set up another spot cryptocurrency trading desk under its own name.
This is encouraging — banks have been reluctant to offer crypto spot on a large scale as regulation threatens to make it costly for them to hold the assets.
Still, at first glance, the move threatened to sow confusion among customers — why have two cryptocurrency trading desks in plain sight?
However, Usman said DL News it’s all right. “There is no competition or conflict by itself — we just want to provide clients with multiple options in terms of how they execute trades,” Usman said.
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Investment professionals who deal with Standard Chartered are not so sure there is no confusion.
They agree, however, that the two tables will not go after the same customers.
‘There is no competition or conflict per se — we just want to offer clients multiple options in terms of how they execute trades.’
— Usman Ahmad
Large institutional clients such as banks and asset managers are wary of the considerable counterparty risks in cryptocurrency trading.
They would prefer to deal with a highly regulated bank like the giant Standard Chartered, with 83,000 staff and a market capitalisation of £19bn.
Smaller clients operating outside the bank’s family-owned scope can go to Zodia Markets, a person familiar with the bank’s trading operations said. DL News.
Standard Chartered will appeal to “higher-value, higher-ticket clients,” said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing the companies publicly. “With Zodia, there are smaller clients, higher turnover, perhaps those in jurisdictions the bank doesn’t want to touch.”
Standard Chartered did not respond to requests for comment. DL News.
Strange adjustment
The episode demonstrates how cryptocurrency trading can still be an uncomfortable option for traditional financial institutions.
While traditional banks have long dealt with cryptocurrency derivatives such as Bitcoin futures contracts and, more recently, spot price ETFs, caution about the asset remains.
Part of this is due to international banking standard-setters considering imposing a punitive tax on banks that hold cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets.
In press reportsStandard Chartered said it was “working closely with our regulators to support demand” for spot Bitcoin and Ether.
Ahmad said it is not uncommon for capital markets firms to operate parallel trading desks.
Interdealer broker TP Icap, for example, is made up of Tullet, Prebon and Icap, which competed before being consolidated under a single brand.
In other words, Standard Chartered’s cryptocurrency desk and Zodia can be compared to Audi and Volkswagen — both are owned by the Volkswagen Group, but the former caters to luxury buyers and the latter to middle-class drivers.
For his part, Ahmad said Zodia and Standard Chartered are not going after each other’s clients. He added that Zodia is finding clients in peripheral markets such as Turkey and the Middle East.
Zodia operates jointly with its parent company in other ways.
A choice for traders
In contrast to Standard Chartered’s dealing desk model, Zodia Markets offers an execution model known as “correspondent principal,” meaning it sits between the counterparties in a transaction and uses its own cryptocurrency inventory to execute the trade.
This liquidity is provided by Standard Chartered’s foreign exchange, or FX, desk.
While Standard Chartered needs a full day to settle trades — known in the industry as T+1 — Zodia can settle almost immediately thanks to the speed of blockchain technology.
At the same time, Zodia Markets operates outside of Standard Chartered’s traditional footprint and offers clients a wider range of access to digital assets, Ahmad said.
Clients who want the comfort of a big bank can turn to Standard Chartered’s new desk, while traders accustomed to dealing with more crypto-centric platforms can opt for Zodia Markets.
While duplication often creates complexity and management headaches, Ahmad says the dual model will offer traders a choice.
“It allows existing customers to access digital assets in the way they are used to,” Ahmad said.
Contact the author at joanna@dlnews.com.
This week saw $722 million worth of Bitcoin spot ETF inflows, including the largest daily inflow in a month.
Cryptocurrency markets rallied on Wednesday, driven by inflows into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is up 3% over the past 24 hours to last change hands at $65,200, according to CoinGecko. Ethereum (ETH) is up 2% and is trading at $3,471. Solana (SUN) and Polkadot (POINT) increased by 4%.
Bitcoin spot ETFs saw $422 million in daily inflows on Tuesday, the highest in the past 30 days, according to Far side data, . The all-time record for a single day was $1.05 billion on March 12.
Among Tuesday’s top contributors, BlackRock’s IBIT led with $260 million in inflows, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC with $61 million. This week has already seen more than $722 million in inflows.
Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, Worldcoin (WLD) led with a 28% increase, followed by Helium (HNT) with 20% and Lido DAO (LDO) with 15%.
Worldcoin, a decentralized identity project led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, announced is extending the lockups for early investors and team members. This means that tokens will be gradually released through 2029, instead of the original 2027 plan. Token unlocks are generally seen as a negative because they increase supply and early investors can sell their tokens for profit.
Meanwhile, XRP, the token of the XRP Ledger network, jumped 8% after the CME and CF benchmarks introduced new indices and reference rates for XRP.
U.S. stocks faced a downturn on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average both fell 2%.
Markets
Altcoins on the cusp of a major breakout – WLD, AR, and INJ prices could surge by 20% in the coming days
Crypto markets appear to have been taken over by the bulls as major tokens have surged above their crucial resistance zone. Bitcoin surged above $65,000 while Ethereum was above $3,500, and XRP, which had remained passive for quite some time, surged over 40% in the past few days to hit $0.6. The uptrend has been captured in most altcoins, with Worldcoin (WLD), Arweave (AR), and Injective (INJ) leading the rally. Here’s what to expect for these tokens in the coming days.
Worldcoin (WLD) Price Analysis
O Worldcoin Price has been trading inside a descending wedge since it marked a new ATH near $12 in the final days of Q1 2024. The recent price action helped the price break out of the upper resistance of the wedge, breaking above the crucial resistance zone between $2.21 and $2.39. Market sentiments have changed, but technicals suggest that the bulls may remain passive for a while, which could offer some room for a bearish pullback.
The price broke out of the wedge with a significant increase in volume, but the current volume suggests that the bulls have taken a step back. Meanwhile, the RSI is about to reach the upper boundary, which could attract bearish forces. Additionally, the DMI has undergone a bullish crossover, but the decline in the ADX suggests that the rally may remain consolidated above the gains. Therefore, the WLD price is expected to maintain a horizontal consolidation between $3 and $3.3 and trigger a fresh rally to $4.4 during the next bullish rally.
Arweave (AR) Price Analysis
Arweave formed a strong base around $25, which helped the rally trigger a recovery during the bearish attack. Mt. Gox and German terror forced the price to fall below $20. However, the recent price action has brought the altcoin within the bullish range and raised expectations of maintaining a decent uptrend for a few more days.
AR price has hit one of the major resistances around $30 to $31.5, which could act as a strong base once overcome. The buying volume is slowly increasing, which could keep the bullish hopes for the rally high. Moreover, the supertrend has just flashed a buy signal, indicating a clean reversal of the trend. Therefore, AR price seems primed to maintain a healthy uptrend and rally above $40. However, if the bulls maintain a similar trend, making new highs above $50 may not be a tedious task for the bulls.
Price Analysis of Injective (INJ)
Injective price has been showing sharp strength since the beginning of the year and hence, the recent turnaround is expected to revive a good uptrend going forward. The bears engulfed the rally to a large extent, but the recent price action suggests that the bulls have regained their dominance. Therefore, INJ price is expected to maintain a strong uptrend with a bearish interference on the way down.
INJ price has surged above the lower support zone and has registered consecutive bullish candles. Although the volume is below the required levels, the OBV is maintaining a sharp uptrend. Furthermore, the Ichimoku cloud lead span B is heading towards the lead span A and a healthy crossover indicates the start of a new uptrend. However, INJ price may be out of the bears’ reach once it secures the resistance zone between $30.77 and $32.12, which seems to be on the horizon.
Ethereum (ETH) supply on exchanges has hit a 34-month high as the asset’s price surpassed the $3,500 mark.
ETH has risen 2.3% over the past 24 hours and is trading at $3,490 at the time of writing. The second-largest cryptocurrency — with a market cap of $419 billion — briefly touched an intraday high of $3,517 earlier today.
ETH Price, Whale Activity, RSI, and Exchange Supply – July 17 | Source: Santiment
Ethereum’s daily trading volume also increased by 7.6% to reach $19.8 billion.
According to data provided by Santiment, the supply of Ethereum on exchanges has reached $19.52 million ETH. This level was last seen in September 2021, when the asset was trading around the same price.
On the other hand, data from the market intelligence platform shows that the number of whale transactions has fallen by 12% in the last day — falling from 8,730 to 7,629 unique transactions per day.
The move shows that the supply of Ethereum on exchanges has been increasing with small deposits rather than large transactions from whales.
Additionally, the ETH Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently hovering at the 60-mark, per Santiment. The indicator shows that Ethereum is slightly overbought at this price point, but it may not be in a critical position due to its large market cap.
One of the main drivers of Ethereum price increase is ETH spot expectations ETFs in the US Investment products are scheduled to start trading on July 23rd.
Markets
Bits + Beeps: How to Play the ‘Trump Trade’ in Cryptocurrencies After the Assassination Attempt
Also, how much will the Fed cut rates (and when)? What will be the inflows into ETH ETFs? And what is the near future for Bitcoin?
Posted on July 17, 2024 at 12:00 PM EST.
Listen to the episode at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Capsules, Source, Podcast Addict, Pocket molds, Amazon Musicor on your favorite podcast platform.
In this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts James Seyffart, Alex Kruger and Joe McCann, joined by guest Jack Platts, dive into the market reaction to the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, analyzing how this event will influence the 2024 US presidential election and the cryptocurrency markets.
They also cover potential rate cuts: Could there be a cut in July? How big could the September rate cut be? Could the decision be influenced by the upcoming election?
They also give their predictions on what percentage of BTC ETF inflows the ETH ETFs will reach, and James talks about what he expects for Grayscale’s ETHE (hint: his outlook would be positive for ETH).
Finally, they delve into what’s next for Bitcoin as the German government runs out of BTC and Mt. Gox distributions begin. Just now?
Program Highlights:
- Whether Trump’s shooting decided the election and whether the event caused a “flight to safety”
- How election markets are becoming a place to watch election probabilities and whether cryptocurrencies “lean right”
- Whether rate cuts will occur in July or September and by how much they will cut: 25 bps or 50 bps
- How Joe sees the relationship between global liquidity cycles, rate cuts, and the potential rise of Bitcoin
- What are the new updates about Ethereum ETFs and their expected launch?
- Why Solana Hasn’t Performed Significantly Better Since Trump News
- What Market Breadth Indicates About the Current Market Rally and the Impact of Rates on Small Caps
- Everyone’s predictions on ETH ETF inflows and how much outflow we’ll see on Grayscale’s ETHE
- What’s Next for BTC After German Government Exits Bitcoin and Mt. Gox Giveaways Starting This Week
Hosts:
Guest:
- Jack PlattsCo-Founder and Managing Partner of Hypersphere Ventures
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