Institutional market structure takes shape in digital assets
Every major asset class follows a familiar path as it matures. Trading begins bilaterally, relationships are fragmented, settlement is bespoke and capital allocation proceeds inefficiently. Over time, professional liquidity concentrates around regulated, wholesale venues, intermediaries bring together buyers and sellers and post-trade processes become standardized, netted and predictable.
Crypto is now entering that phase, and it's setting the foundation for an exciting new class of tokenized financial markets.
With a history dating back to 1866, TP ICAP is the world's largest interdealer broker and a central part of wholesale market infrastructure across rates, FX, credit, equities, energy and commodities. Operating in 28 countries, the firm has long been a leading source of liquidity and execution in traditional markets, sitting at the center of institutional price discovery.
Today, TP ICAP is applying its expertise to digital assets, helping the crypto market transition from a network of bilateral relationships into a functioning wholesale market.
"We connect the world's major financial, energy and commodities markets," Duncan Trenholme, managing director and global co-head of digital assets at TP ICAP, told CoinDesk. "We're deeply connected to banks, hedge funds and asset managers. What we're doing in crypto is building the familiar wholesale market structure our clients expect and require, to support the growth of a new asset class."
From bilateral trading to wholesale infrastructure
Wholesale trading did not emerge in traditional markets overnight. Fixed income, FX and over-the-counter derivatives markets all evolved away from direct, name-to-name trading as volumes grew and balance-sheet efficiency became a constraint. Interdealer brokers emerged to aggregate liquidity, preserve anonymity and intermediate between buyers and sellers. Post-trade processes followed, enabling standardized settlement cycles, netting and operational scale.
Institutional crypto asset trading still reflects its early stage. Many institutional trades remain bilateral, requiring participants to onboard to multiple venues, negotiate contracts one-by-one and manage settlement across a complex web of counterparties and custodians. That fragmentation absorbs capital and limits scalability.
The growing presence of prime brokers in crypto markets has been a foundational evolutionary step for the market and an important development in encouraging liquidity, by centralizing interaction, to coalesce around a true wholesale market.
