If you’re buying or selling a 100 or more BTC at once, you probably don’t want it at the mercy of the market: you want a trading method that protects you from shifting market position or the slippage that happens when you show your hand before the deal is done. For some people, that method is trading with an over-the-counter (OTC) broker who directly finds a counterparty for your desired trade.

The idea behind OTC trading is that these brokers can provide a quoted price for large transactions and shield high-value traders from adversely impacting their own price point, as the traders would if they traded directly on an exchange.

Like much of the young crypto industry, the realm of OTC trading brokers can be opaque and difficult to navigate. If you end up stumbling into the virtual office of a disreputable OTC broker, you might discover that they could game you just as much as an actual exchange could, in ways that are even harder to spot unless you know where to look.

You don’t have to go into the OTC brokerage marketplace blind, though: we’ve rounded up info on 14 of the better-known OTC brokers for you to explore. As an important note, reference to any firm is simply for convenience, and is not an endorsement by SFOX — always check out firms on your own and come to your own conclusions.

Co-founders: George Melika, trading platform and payment system developer; Akbar Thobhani, formerly head of growth and business development at Airbnb.

Headquarters: San Fransisco, CA, USA.

Key OTC features:

• Algorithmic trading that lets you execute high-volume trades across multiple exchange order books.
• Proprietary Sniper algorithm lets you execute a hidden order designed to move 100+ BTC as fast as possible with as little slippage as possible.
• Proprietary TWAP algorithm lets you trade 10+ BTC over a fixed time interval of up to 24 hours, with the goal of getting as close to the time-weighted average price as possible.
• Proprietary Polar Bear algorithm lets you trade 100+ BTC by filling orders on the top of exchanges’ order books, without being pulled deeper into the order books.
• Proprietary Gorilla algorithm slowly trades your 100+ BTC order in smaller pieces on multiple exchange order books with the goal of getting you the best price possible.

CEO: Wayne Trench. Formerly: Head of Morgan Stanley Electronic Trading Coverage — Asia; Head of Macquarie Bank Electronic Trading — Asia.

Headquarters: Hong Kong, China.

Key OTC features:

• A large network of block trading partners to provide liquidity for trades.
• Security practices including cold storage, SSL, 3-factor authentication, and multi-signature settlement.
• A private chat group for discussing and executing trades.
• Instant price quotes on demand.
• Same-day settlements for trades worldwide.
• Low transaction fees benchmarked against leading cryptocurrency exchange’s rates.

CEO: Michael Moro. Formerly Director at SecondMarket.

Headquarters: New York, NY, USA.

Key OTC features:

• Same-day settlement through an intuitive interface.
• OTC trading for seven crypto assets: BTC, ETH, BCH, XRP, LTC, ETC, and ZEC.
• Billions in trading volume since 2013.
• Liquidity-providing network of trading partners.
• 24/7 support from trading specialists.
• Regulated with FINRA, SEC, and NYS DFS BitLicense.

Founding Partner: Shuoji Zhou. Formerly: Principal Sales Consultant at Oracle; Senior IT Specialist at IBM.

Headquarters: Beijing City, China.

Key OTC features:

• Manages high-volume trading on a regular basis.

Founding Partners: Bill Disomma and Paul Gurinas. Formerly floor traders at the CME.

Headquarters: Chicago, IL, USA.

Key OTC features:

• Backed by 19-year history of quant-based, in-house research.
• Top-tier computational infrastructure guides data analysis of crypto and other asset classes.
• Emphasis on algorithmic and high-frequency trading.

CEO: Jeremy Allaire. Formerly: Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Brightcove; Entrepreneur in Residence at General Catalyst Partners.

Headquarters: Boston, MA, USA.

Key OTC features:

• Backed by established investors like Goldman Sachs and Bitmain.
• Worldwide offices (London, New York, Hong Kong, and Boston) provide trading liquidity by making markets across many exchanges.
• High-volume system moving over $2 billion USD monthly.

CEO: Charles Cascarilla. Co-founder and partner at Cedar Hill Capital Partners; Partner at Liberty City Ventures. Formerly: Portfolio Manager at Claiborne Capital Management; Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Headquarters: New York, NY, USA.

Key OTC features:

• Mostly same-day settlement of trades.
• Flat rate transaction fees and no crypto withdrawal fees.
• Private, individual trade support from an itBit trader.
• Trade liquidity from itBit’s network of clients from 100+ countries.

Co-founders: Max Boonen, formerly interest rates trader at Goldman Sachs; Flavio Molendini, formerly software solution architect and senior IT leader.

Headquarters: London, England.

Key OTC features:

• Flexible trade size lets users trade anything from small amounts to multimillion-dollar blocks OTC.
• Expertise trading multiple currencies since 2015 — both cryptocurrencies and fiat.
• Instant execution and post-trade settlement any hour of any day.

CEO: Philippe Bekhazi, formerly Global Macro Trading at SAC Capital and Advisor at Citi.

Headquarters: New York City, NY, USA; Paris, France; London, England; Bermuda.

Key OTC features:

• Ability to quote large, institutional-sized OTC blocks.
• Integrates OTC trades into its broader proprietary trading business.
• One of the largest liquidity providers in the world.
• Proprietary quantitative algorithms have powered its business since 2015.

CEO: Daniel Weinberg. Formerly: Senior Partner, Optiver.

Headquarters: Hong Kong, China.

Key OTC features:

• Expertise in token advisory and due diligence.
• Decades of experience in trading, analysis, and portfolio management.
• Hybrid approach of quantitative and qualitative trade analyses.

Co-Founder: Joshua Ho. Formerly: Senior Vice President International Growth, GO-JEK; Growth Consultant, Wantedly; International Expansion, Uber.

Headquarters: Singapore.

Key OTC features:

• Almost all trades have same-day settlement.
• 24/7 access to traders on the trading desk.
• Customizable order management based on specific needs (size of order, required turnaround time, etc.).
• No hidden fees charged on top of trades.

Global Head of Trading: Bobby Cho. Formerly: Director, itBit; Vice President, SecondMarket.

Headquarters: Chicago, IL, USA.

Key OTC features:

• Provides liquidity through offices trading in London, Chicago, and Singapore.
• Streamlined diligence and settlement systems to make large institutional trades efficient and intuitive to execute.

CEO: Stan Miroshnik. Formerly: CEO, The Argon Group; Managing Direct, Rosemount Consulting Partners.

Headquarters: Santa Monica, CA, USA.

Key OTC features:

• Algorithm-based OTC trading that works to mitigate risk.
• Focus on user confidentiality and discretion of services.
• Transparent, competitive fee schemes.
• In-house research and trading technology designed to route trades as efficiently as possible through their trading partners with minimal market impact.

KYB: Know-Your-Broker

There’s a lot of talk about know-your-customer standards of due diligence that exchanges are expected to abide by as they add new clients. There’s less talk about how important that same kind of diligence is for you as an active trader: not all platforms and brokers are created equal, and if you don’t do your research to make sure you’re working with reputable parties, you could end up taking big hits every time you trade. So, the take-home lesson is to make sure any broker you deal with has industry expertise, a demonstrable track record, and shows professionalism.

Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience only, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by SFOX.

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