just now
October 04, 2021 - Crypto market maker B2C2 announced today the launch of options trading. B2C2 will initially offer BTC/USD and ETH/USD OTC vanilla options, with bespoke expiry dates and strikes, to institutional counterparts.
The new product, which rounds out the firm’s integrated spot and Delta one derivatives offering, is designed to meet heightened demand for sophisticated alpha generation and hedging instruments. Rather than mirroring expiries on options exchanges, B2C2’s bespoke options contracts offer any strike and any expiry out to three months, enabling users to more precisely meet their hedging and investment needs.
The options trading business will be run by Brad Nagela, global head of options trading, who is based in Chicago and Johannes Woolard, head of options trading in Europe, who is based in London.
Brad Nagela, Global Head of Options Trading at B2C2, said, “This is an exciting time for us at B2C2. We believe that we’re uniquely positioned to provide counterparts with the products they need, backed by deep pools of liquidity. Product innovation, excellence in risk management and efficient trade execution and settlement are a winning combination for us and we look forward to building out a full suite of derivative products, much like those you’d find at an investment bank.”
B2C2, which was acquired by Japanese financial group SBI in December 2020, represents a natural entry point for financial institutions seeking to trade crypto with a reliable counterparty. With 500+ clients, B2C2 is relied on by aggregators, brokers, hedge funds, exchanges and OTC desks. The growing number of cryptocurrency investors, and the recent bitcoin flash crash, has placed an even greater premium on fully electronic, uniquely scalable trading platforms. While many exchanges were overwhelmed by the market volatility and trading volumes on May 19th this year, B2C2 was able to continuously serve clients with quotes and settlements throughout a record-breaking day of 1 million+ trades executed and 1 billion+ dollars settled.
