A LIST OF TOP CRYPTO MARKET MAKERS

Table of contents

• Empirica
• GSR
• Wintermute Trading
• Virtu Financial Inc.
• Jump Crypto
• Keyrock
• Kairon Labs
• Optiver
• AlphaTheta
• Jane Street
• Hudson River Trading (HRT)
• CLS Global
• Efficient Frontier
• B2C2
• Enigma Securities
• Pulsar Trading Capital
• GOTBIT Ltd
• Algoz
• Susquehanna International Group (SIG)
• Woorton SAS
• Flow Traders
• Galaxy Digital Trading
• Tower Research Capital
• Cumberland DRW
• Skynet Trading
• Pantera Capital
• Acheron Trading
• Nordic Velo
• Amber Group
• Bluesky Capital
• DWF Labs
• Jump Trading
• QCP Capital
• Biggest crypto market makers
• Overview of good and bad market practices
• Summary

Crypto market makers review

In our post, we review five alternative crypto market making services. We will start with our liquidity solution and explain how you can use it to improve your token’s standing in the eyes of one of the two key groups of your project – investors. So, here is a small review of our competition in the crypto market making space. It’s starting as a small list, but with time we will add more credible entities here.

Empirica

In providing an overview of crypto market makers, we will start with our solution, Liquidity Engine, to highlight the most important aspects when choosing the right business partner to provide liquidity in crypto markets. We believe that feeless market making, which is our main focus, makes a difference compared to other offerings discussed below.

The first problem we are trying to address is to help the blockchain project answer, what is the liquidity situation on its token. We have invested years of our work in extensive analytics, sophisticated algorithms, and a data warehouse. It allows us to collect detailed information about each coin every second the slightest move happens to it in one of the markets. We share this processed and aggregated data with the projects we partner with. This allows them to better understand the situation of their tokens on individual exchanges and relate it to competing tokens and the entire crypto market.

Screenshot from one of the dashboards of Empirica’s Liquidity Engine

The second common problem – smaller projects sometimes have difficulty listing their tokens on better exchanges, where many retail investors allocate their capital. The road from launch to listing in credible markets is sometimes long and challenging. However, we can often help here. We have a long history of cooperation and excellent relations with many exchanges. There is nothing unusual about it because we are an essential partner for many of them, sometimes responsible for 20% of their daily volume. This allows us to help our clients get listed on these exchanges, often faster and at a lower cost. If you aim to introduce your token to good exchanges, we will create a plan and consistently implement it. It’s not easy, but possible.

Effective liquidity handling requires including decentralized (DEX) and centralized (CEX). It requires developing a tactical plan that coordinates activities to achieve project goals. This may include pool maintenance, arbitrage, and marketing efforts to engage the community and attract investors. We help with tokens in each of these fields.

Screenshot from one of the dashboards of Empirica’s Liquidity Engine

What are the effects of our market making service? We notice that by adequately setting our liquidity algorithms, we very often lead to an increase in volumes by 30-50% in the short term and up to several hundred percent in the long term. You can discover how we can conduct an effective market making project for your token here:

We increase the volumes of our partners by significantly increasing the depth of order books, building investor confidence in the token, and always being there when investors need us as the other party to the transaction, regardless of the market situation. We know it works because we’ve done it more than it many times.
And now a few words about other companies in the space.

GSR

GSR is a crypto powerhouse, with over 300 hundred people onboard (as of mid-2022). From market making, GSR expanded to other areas such as venture capital and OTC trading serving big names in the industry. Similarly to us, GSR also developed all their trading software in-house.

Wintermute Trading

Wintermute is another crypto market making giant, that experienced rapid growth last year, and similarly as GSR expanded to other areas like OTC and venture capital. Wintermute additionally has also built its own decentralized exchange (Bebop).  Again, Wintermute, like GSR and us, has built its trading systems with its own development team. Seems like this is the way to go if you want to give your customers a competitive advantage.

Wintermute has a lot of bad luck in 2022, as they experienced two big hacks related to their defi operations. Luckily, looking from the outside it doesn’t shake the company’s financial standing and didn’t disrupt Wintermute’s daily business. Looks like hackers are on the hunt for big trading companies, as their operations are very exposed on public blockchains.

Virtu Financial Inc.

Virtu has been operating since 2008 and employs over 900 people. They are not like Wintermute or GSR crypto natives but come from traditional finance, and over a year ago, they came into crypto. This fact is also a sign of the growing adoption of crypto and means that large companies from Wall Street are becoming our competition, and we will not be bored.

They make the markets on the most significant coins on the largest exchanges, we are not sure if they are also in altcoins and defi, but what we really like about Virtu, and why we write about them here, is that the company is public. No, they don’t have a token, but they are listed on the Nasdaq exchange. This gives a lot of credibility because their financial statements for years have been open, transparent, and can be reviewed by anybody. This is an example of a well-organized business that many growing companies can learn much from in new finance. Imagine such transparency of crypto companies. Why are we not moving faster in this direction as an industry?

Jump Crypto

Jump Crypto and Jump Trading jointly employ over 1,200 people. Jump is a behemoth from Wall Street, founded in 1999, whose story began at CME. They also have a venture capital branch of Jump Capital.

Keyrock

Keyrock is dedicated to supporting the development of digital assets through algorithmic trading and market solutions. Founded in 2017 in Brussels, Belgium, Keyrock has become a major player in the field of cryptocurrency market makers. Focusing on developing scalable and adaptable algorithmic technologies, Keyrock aims to facilitate the smooth functioning of digital asset markets.

Kairon Labs

Kairon Labs, a Belgian crypto market maker, has been operating since 2019. It was established by two friends, Jens Willemen and Mathias Beke. The company distinguishes itself by employing proprietary trading technology and implementing its own algorithms and market strategies. Kairon Labs’ co-founder firmly believes that “liquid markets are healthy markets”, a sentiment we wholeheartedly endorse. 

Optiver

AlphaTheta

AlphaTheta has two global financial centres; Singapore & Toronto. As they describe themselves – the company “creates solutions for enhancing token marketability and building stability into tokenomic profiles”. They use ​​built in-house technology and their focus is on combining algorithmic trading with bots.

Jane Street

Jane Street is a global liquidity provider and trading firm with offices in New York, Hong Kong, London, Amsterdam, and Singapore.

The company started its business journey by trading American and international ETFs in 1999. Since then, it has grown significantly. At the moment, JaneStreet prices and trades 5,000+ ETFs worldwide. Moreover, it has entered bonds, options, equities, and crypto markets. The company continuously conducts trading on more than 200 electronic exchanges and venues worldwide. Jane Street has also launched its proprietary platforms: JCX (digital assets single dealer platform), JX, JX-EU (equity single dealer platforms), and Wholesale Market Maker (US equities wholesale market-making platform). Jane Street employs over 1800 people.

Hudson River Trading (HRT)

This quantitative trading firm was established in 2002 and is based in New York, US. Now it has offices in 6 countries and trades in 200+ markets worldwide. HRT employs over 900 people.

CLS Global

CLS Global is an all-in-one consulting company which combines Marketing/PR and Market Making services with 5 years’ experience. CLS Global headquarters is in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. They provide marketing and advertising services that create results and help crypto projects achieve their short- and long-term goals. 

Efficient Frontier

Efficient Frontier, established in 2018 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, is a digital asset algorithmic trading firm. With a focus on institutional-grade services, the company offers a comprehensive range of solutions including algorithmic trading, market making, analytics, and liquidity management. Efficient Frontier caters to token-backed digital assets, Security Token Offerings (STOs), and various cryptocurrencies, ensuring the provision of high-quality services in the digital asset space.

B2C2

B2C2 is a crypto-native liquidity provider, offering its services to institutions across diverse market conditions. Established in 2015, B2C2 Ltd is primarily owned by the Japanese financial group, SBI. The company is headquartered in the United Kingdom and maintains additional offices in the United States and Japan. B2C2 specializes in providing liquidity solutions tailored to the unique requirements of institutional clients in the cryptocurrency industry.

Enigma Securities

Enigma is a trusted facilitator for cryptocurrency liquidity, banking relationships, and custody solutions, operating within regulatory frameworks. The company excels in providing comprehensive, tailored liquidity products and services through their proprietary electronic trading platform and API access. Michael Halimi, the co-founder of Enigma Securities also serves as the CEO and co-founder of Makor Group, of which Enigma is a subsidiary. With this strong leadership and affiliation, Enigma continues to offer a holistic, one-stop solution for the specific needs of its clients in the cryptocurrency industry.

Pulsar Trading Capital

Founded in Hong Kong in 2014, Pulsar is a proprietary algorithmic trading firm specialized in cryptocurrency trading and market making.

GOTBIT Ltd

Founded in 2017, GotBit is a crypto market maker that provides platform based solutions. GotBit is headquartered in Moscow, Russia and currently they employ over 100 people with.

Algoz

Algoz is Israel based (headquartered in Raanana) a quantitative crypto investment technology firm. Algoz’s proprietary technology specializes in the development of trading solutions. Since 2016,  Algoz provides individuals and institutions with bespoke trading solutions and technology services for all crypto assets. 

Susquehanna International Group (SIG)

Susquehanna International Group is a global quantitative trading firm built on a rigorous, analytical foundation in financial markets.

Founded in 1987, SIG is one of the major proprietary trading firms in the world. The headquarters are located in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, US, while the total number of offices worldwide is 14 as of 2022. The number of employees has exceeded the mark of 1,900. SIG works with all listed asset classes and financial products, including Bitcoin.

Susquehanna International Group employs over 2700 people.

Woorton SAS

Woorton is a market-making firm based in France, with its headquarters situated in Paris. Established in 2018, the company was founded by a team of experienced former financial services executives hailing from diverse backgrounds, including equity, fixed income, structured solutions, and algorithmic trading. Leveraging their expertise, Woorton employs proprietary software and in-house developed analytical systems to deliver liquidity services and identify trading opportunities. As of 2022, Woorton has a dedicated team of 17 employees, committed to providing market-making solutions in the industry.

Flow Traders

Flow Traders, a renowned proprietary trading firm, has its headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with global offices. Established in 2004, the company initially focused on ETPs but later expanded its services to include liquidity in fixed income, foreign exchange (FX), commodities, and digital assets. Employing high-frequency and quantitative trading strategies, Flow Traders provides liquidity in securities markets.

Currently, Flow Traders collaborates with 2,000 institutional counterparties worldwide, including hedge funds, banks, pension funds, and insurance companies. As of 2021, the company continuously quoted nearly 8,000 ETPs across the globe, boasting a team of over 700 employees.

Galaxy Digital Trading

Galaxy is a cryptocurrency liquidity provider managing over $2.5 billion in assets for more than 960 institutional trading counterparties. It offers world-class pricing so brokers and investors can trade at competitive prices.

Tower Research Capital

Founded in 1998 by Mark Gorton, Tower Research Capital LLC, or simply Tower Research, is a high-frequency trading, algorithmic trading, and financial services fund.

Cumberland DRW

Founded in 2014, it’s a subsidiary of DRW. As they say about themselves: “Cumberland helps investors and institutions capitalize on new ventures, working to ensure the ecosystem continues to grow in feasible and renewable ways.” DRW, a Chicago-based firm, was established in 1992 by an options trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Don Wilson. 

Today the company claims its capacities allow for conducting 1,000 trades per second (which is in the standard range for algorithmic trading systems). On average, DRW executes 1 million trades per day. After years of successful work in traditional markets, the company has expanded its activities to emerging ones like crypto assets.  Now DRW provides liquidity to ETFs, fixed income, commodities, currencies, and crypto markets.

DRW employs over 1600 people.

Skynet Trading

Algorithmic trading, software and investment firm in the digital assets market. This company is headquartered in Hong Kong. Company size is up to 50 employees. 

Pantera Capital

Pantera Capital is an American hedge fund that specializes in cryptocurrencies. Pantera Capital was founded by former Tiger Management Head of Macro Trading and CFO Dan Morehead. Pantera’s global macro strategy invested over $1 billion of institutional allocations. In 2013, Pantera created the first blockchain hedge and venture funds in the United States.

Acheron Trading

Founded in 2018, headquartered in Singapore, AcheronTrading is a designated market maker which provides liquidity and advisory services to digital asset issuers on exchanges.

Nordic Velo

Nordic Velo, founded in 2021 and based in London, is a trading firm that offers exchange listing, market-making, execution, venture fund, and consulting services.

Amber Group

Founded in 2017, a company of 500+ entrepreneurial technologists, traders, and engineers focused on digital asset trading, products, and infrastructure. The company is headquartered in Singapore with a presence in Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, EMEA, and North America.

Bluesky Capital

Founded in New York in 2014, Bluesky Capital is a global quantitative investment manager and digital assets market maker for individual and institutional investors. The company manages a quant global macro program.

DWF Labs

Founded in 2022, Singapore based, DWF Labs bills itself online as a global digital asset market maker and multi-stage web3 investment firm, providing support from token listing to market making to OTC trading solutions.

Jump Trading

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Chicago (US), Jump Trading LLC is a proprietary trading firm with a focus on algorithmic and high-frequency trading strategies. Jump Trading has been partnering, innovating and trading in the crypto world for years as Jump Crypto (described above). The aim of Jump Crypto is to help shape the future of the industry. Jump Crypto and Jump Trading jointly employ over 1,200 people. 

QCP Capital

Founded in 2017, Singapore based QCP Capital is a crypto asset trading firm with a focus on Asian market infrastructure.

Biggest crypto market makers

Many established firms focusing on market making have recently entered the cryptocurrency space. Companies like Jane Street, Virtu Financial, Jump Trading, and even Citadel Securities are among them. These are all enormous businesses with over a thousand employees each, and they all began on Wall Street in the 1990s. They are the biggest firms on Wall Street, but will they also dominate the crypto sphere? It’s not decided yet, as our industry has many impressive native crypto trading firms that used the time very well to develop competitive technology.

Good practices, bad practices

Being long enough in this industry we have observed many different practices, both good and bad. Some of them are applied by market makers, and some are asked by customers wanted to find shortcuts on the path to solid liquidity.

Below is a review of important issues that needs to be addressed, when setting up cooperation with a market maker:

Loans – when dealing especially with big market making companies, they often will ask for loans reaching up to 5-8% of your tokens’ supply. Do not agree with that, it’s not justified. Amounts required to effectively support the liquidity of tokens are far less in most cases.

Bots and automatic solutions seem to be tempting. Ease of onboarding and set up. You just enter API keys into the dashboard, set up basic stuff like order sizes, and spread, and click Run, and voila – there is liquidity on the market. We have been building and licensing trading bots for customers for a few years and it worked quite well in cases of simpler topics like arbitrage or execution of large orders. But for market making, which is a complex and multidimensional topic that requires different tactics for different market conditions, additionally with coordination of liquidity on different exchanges, automated solutions lead to mediocre results at best. And most of the time you will just slowly bleed the capital. Top results can be delivered only by top-notch technology. The market is already too competitive.

Size matters – Find a partner of your size – it’s good advice for any business scenario. If you are a small project that makes a deal with a big market maker, you will be their 300th customer. And your less liquid markets will be very uninteresting to them. We have seen this scenario many times – one, two markets actively made, and five others forgotten, with a spread of 2, 3% or more. Top firms just go where liquidity already is. If you want to be important to your partner, find one of less or more your own size.

Volume generation, also known as wash trading, or setting goals on volume or price levels, etc – are practices that are sometimes proposed by unaware customers, and sometimes proposed by short-sighted market makers. These topics are well covered all around the internet. This is manipulation, that gets a project nowhere. Deceiving own investors is never a good idea. There are better methods to break the circle of lack of liquidity. Maybe tougher but working long-term. Everybody was there at the beginning.

Summary

At Empirica, our goal is to make a market of a token so liquid within 6-12 months that you will no it does not need to pay for market making services anymore. We are already doing a market of over 50 coins for which they don’t have to pay us. For over 50 tokens on several exchanges, we make 40-60% of the turnover, quoting them 98% of the time. Since they already have a significant volume, we can earn our own PnL.

And coming back to our list, it’s definitely not complete. There are many smaller companies in the market making area. However, we still need more reliable information from their current or former clients about the quality of their services, and we were hesitant to review them here. But indeed, once we gather more credible information, we’ll be expanding this list, so please check it from time to time.

Here you can learn more about the details of how we build organic liquidity for crypto projects

Author: Michal Rozanski, updated on 12 January 2023