Coinbase to Open Chicago Office to Attract Institutional Clients

Cryptocurrency industry giant Coinbase is set to open a Chicago office offering block trading to draw in more institutional clients to GDAX, which is its professional trading platform.

According to sources familiar with the situation, Coinbase will start providing block trading-which will permit traders to make large transactions outside of the exchange’s normal channels as it tries to attract institutional clients and solve a major problem for such a group of people.

High-volume traders have a tough time completing transactions at conventional cryptocurrency exchanges given that larger transactions can influence market prices than are relatively thinly-traded.

However, with block trading, transactions are disseminated to market markers outside of the exchange’s continuously-updated order books and transactions are usually published on a delay.

The service will apparently be provided through GDAX, the world’ ninth-largest cryptocurrency exchange, with an estimated daily trading volume of $315 million.

In April, New York-based exchange Gemini, co-founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, started providing block trading.

Several companies provide over-the-counter (OTC) trading for institutional buyers. Goldman Sachs-supported Circle’s trading desk recently doubled the minimum size for Bitcoin transactions to $500,000, referring to great demand from large-scale traders.

Earlier on, Coinbase revealed that is has plans to launch a cryptoasset custodial service that will cater to clients who want to save at least $10 million worth of assets.