The Japanese financial institution SBI Holdings will extend its crypto portfolio with cryptocurrencies derivatives after purchasing a 12% stake in Clear Markets, said SBI’s financial report released on July 31st. SBI intends to acquire up to 20 percent more in the near future.
Clear Markets is a US-based provider and developer of electronic trading platforms offering trading services for OTC derivatives in the US, UK, and Japan.
SBI’s new investment in Clear Markets is one part of its commitment to establish a trading platform for cryptocurrency derivatives addressed to institutional investors. The platform is intended to allow financial institutions to trade cryptos more efficiently.
Clear Markets will facilitate hedging for cryptocurrency swaps that are “necessary for dealing with cryptocurrencies and financial instruments that use cryptocurrencies.” In the review, the SBI group stated that the intensified use of cryptocurrencies and their derivatives would boost liquidity.
Nikkei Asian predicts that the investment will cost SBI Holdings approximately $9 million.
SBI Holding to develop a cryptocurrencies derivatives platform with Clear Markets
Clear Markets intends to implement a cryptocurrency trading service as it already has a US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and SEF (Swap Execution Facility) license and is involved in derivatives brokerage market across the UK and other 32 European countries. The corporation is an affiliate of QUICK Corp. a member of the Japanese Nikkei Inc.
In 2017, SBI Holdings spent money on over 20 crypto-related projects and, on July 17th, it formally released the official version of the VCTRADE cryptocurrency exchange. Now, SBI Holdings plans on releasing a cryptocurrencies derivatives platform with Clear Markets.
Japan is among the world’ s top countries in the introduction of cryptocurrencies and crypto investments. “Up to 50 percent of the cash trade in cryptocurrency” has so far occurred in Japan, said Mark Brickell, CEO of Clear Markets.
During the past week, the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) declared that it would demand that its cryptocurrency exchange affiliates restrict the trading operations of some customers in order to avoid high capital losses for those investors with relatively small financial holdings.
