The crypto-currency exchange Coinbase on Thursday announced a new tie-up between its institutional platform, GDAX, and Trading Technologies (TT), which provides trading software for the likes of hedge funds and firms like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
The addition of the TT tools will make it easier for traders to engage in spot market and futures trades at the same time. This is significant, according to GDAX, because such tools are a foundation of sophisticated trading strategies, and could entice more major financial players to enter the crypto markets.
In announcing the news, the companies said the new tools would increase the reach of GDAX’s platform, which could in turn expand the volume of crypto-trading across the world.
“With 19 of the top 20 futures commission merchants as distribution partners, TT users are some of the largest futures and commodity traders in the world. Its connectivity stretches to nearly 45 markets, including the futures markets of the CME Group, Deutsche Boerse, Intercontinental Exchange and Nasdaq. Through this partnership, TT users will be able to view market data, submit orders, and leverage a market-leading suite of charting and automated trading tools to trade cryptocurrencies on GDAX,” the company said in a statement.
The tie-up between GDAX and TT comes after a group of exchanges began offering futures contracts for bitcoin and other crypto-currencies in December. The availability of these contracts was expected to help temper the extreme volatility that has long characterized the crypto markets but, so far, they have done little to temper the price swings.
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Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal of Wednesday reported that hedge funds are growing wary of “cryptomania” amid an ongoing slump in prices.
GDAX General Manager Adam White tells Fortune the futures market is working as expected, but that it’s too early for the contracts to have had an impact on stabilizing volatility. He says this is in part because major traders have yet to have access to a full suite of tools to fully take advantage of the futures market.
“The volatility is why traders are waiting for an offering like this [with TT],” White says. “It’s a way for a safe discovery process to happen quickly and efficiently, which could draw more major financial players into the crypto arena.”
Rick Lane, the CEO of TT, echoed the sentiment, saying the GDAX-TT partnership will for the first time let big traders have the tools they need to manage risk in the crypto market, and is likely to draw in more major investors.
The partnership also comes at a time when Coinbase is making a concerted play to attract institutional investors by offering features like margin trading a custodian service.
