Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings has agreed to acquire a $30 Million minority stake in London-based crypto liquidity provider B2C2.
According to an announcement made on Wednesday, July 1st, this strategic partnership will accelerate the expansion of the two firms in the crypto market. Under the terms of this partnership, B2C2 will provide crypto liquidity for SBI Holdings which is planning to grow its crypto offering to “millions of existing customers.”
Yoshitaka Kitao, President and CEO of SBI Holdings, stated:
“We expect a lot of synergies with B2C2, a firm which has a large number of clients globally and offers abundant liquidity, excellent price competitiveness, and a diverse suite of products for their customers. We will work to develop innovative new crypto products and deepen synergies across our group of companies.”
In return, B2C2 would benefit from SBI’s massive distribution network as it eyes to launch an electronic prime brokerage based on its single dealer platform. In the coming weeks, the company will also launch an automated financing facility to provide the most competitive two-way prices in the funding market.
B2C2, founded in 2015, is headquartered in London with offices in Tokyo and Jersey City. The firm is a major over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It provides 24/7 liquidity to banks, brokerages, exchanges, and fund managers globally.
Max Boonen, a former Goldman Sachs trader and founder of B2C2, commented:
“Today’s deal with SBI takes B2C2 a big step forward. Having claimed the top spot in our segment thanks to the technological edge of our single dealer platform, we found in SBI the right partner to unlock the next drivers of our growth. B2C2 will benefit from SBI’s balance sheet, which is far larger than anything committed to the crypto market to date. It will complement our asset liability management framework – the most sophisticated in the market – to deliver an execution platform that will not only be a game-changer in crypto but also positions us to expand across asset classes as we set our sights on the $20bn-a-year prime brokerage market.”
SBI, founded in 1999, has a strong presence in crypto space. The company is a major partner of Ripple, a blockchain-based real-time gross settlement platform. Both the companies are running a joint venture SBI Ripple Asia promoting XRP, the native cryptocurrency of Ripple, in Asian financial markets.
Most recently, SBI has also announced Japan’s first crypto fund comprising 50% of XRP, 30% of Bitcoin, and 20% of Ethereum. As Crypto Economy reported, SBI also launched its crypto exchange VCTRADE in June 2018.
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