Bitcoin Global News (BGN)

February 08, 2019 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- As an industry becomes more regulated, it attracts more support from various institutional investors. In the case of the crypto industry, however, this is not exactly true due to what cryptocurrencies are at their core. Some financial organizations will simply never be on board with a form of money that aims to upend the traditional financial system as we know it.

Still, the fact remains that Fidelity ended 2018 by entering the crypto market in a big way, despite its’ entrenched status as one of the most powerful financial institutions with regards to more traditional investments. This, in connection with the upcoming launch of the Bakkt platform by the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, seems to foreshadow a powerful move by the legacy financial system to corral crypto to an extent.

On the heels of the initial announcements of these events, Huobi US and now, Bithumb, have announced the opening of global over-the-counter trading desks to allow institutional clients all over the world to get involved in crypto. In the case of Bithumb, this move was facilitated by a new partnership with a company called Ortus, which will effectively serve as the facilitator of all of the services related to their new OTC service.

What is perhaps most important to remember here is that all institutional clients who wish to use this service will have to go through extensive know-your-customer and anti-money laundering procedures before being allowed to invest anything. Whether or not this provision indicates an even larger move of crypto related companies toward high levels of KYC and AML requirements for everyone, remains to be seen. For now, it is reasonable to expect that crypto will become more and more friendly to institutional clients, at least until some powerful crypto firms decide to cater more to the average consumer.

In either case, it is logical to wonder: what would Satoshi say about all of this?

By: BGN Editorial Staff