Blockchain.com Buys Crypto OTC Trading Desk In $150 million 

• A wallet service and crypto exchange Blockchain.com announced that it will be acquiring Altonomy’s over-the-counter trading desk.

• The deal has surpassed all the previous acquisitions held in the crypto space including Coinbase’s acquisition of prime brokerage Tagom and the $150 million acquisition of Blockfolio by FTX. 

• According to Architect Partners, an advisory firm, the deal can meet the needs of institutional clients for Blockchain.com for a more wide-range of coins.

Blockchain.com, wallet service, and crypto exchange in an announcement disclosed the acquisition of Altonomy’s over-the-counter trading desk.

A source revealed that the deal was closed at $250 million in a transaction that involved both cash and stocks. 

This deal has broken the record of past acquisition deals in the crypto space, including Coinbase’s acquisition of prime brokerage Tagom and the $150 million acquisition of Blockfolio by FTX. 

According to Architect Partners, an advisory firm, the deal is following the ongoing trend of larger market “product-based” acquisitions whose priority is to focus on obtaining “new products” and “regulatory licenses”, including those in decentralized finance and the metaverse. 

The US acquisition of LedgerX by FTX is a great example of the latter. The company obtained the options exchange partly because of the licenses it has from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to release a futures platform. 

It is further revealed that the acquisition of Altonomy’s OTC business by Blockchain.com, which traded for $16 billion last year, will be beneficial in expanding the firm’s presence and trading operation in Asia. Last year, as per the data, Blockchain.com traded $10 billion across its OTC and other trading businesses. The core system of Autonomy is added to the existing trading platform of Blockchain.com.

Architect Partners believes that the deal is a way for Blockchain.com to fulfill the needs of institutional clients who seek to trade a more wide-range of coins. 

The company in a recent alert stated that Altonomy’s expertise in altcoin and OTC trading will help Blockchain.com to grow its presence in this space, at the same time expanding its product suite. 

It further explains that as more institutions enter the crypto trading arena, they would need some products to improve altcoin trading, due to which the popular crypto trading exchanges such as Blockchain.com will try to increase their trading capabilities of low liquidity crypto assets.

It is also important to note here that Blockchain.com is not acquiring the complete business of Autonomy. Ricky Li, who earlier worked in the hedge fund sphere, founded Autonomy. 

In the future, Architect is hopeful that M&A will continue to expand, powered by big exchanges

The firm points out that with more than 400 active exchanges there is a large number of people who want to acquire accounts by buying smaller firms. 

Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.

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