Kraken OTC 20x'd its volume since 2018
Nelson Minier, head of OTC at crypto exchange Kraken, said the desk has 20x'd the number of trades it does per month since last year on this week's episode of The Scoop.
Minier said the company doesn't disclose exact volumes, but they're on the rise. The exchange did nearly $85 billion in volume in 2018, but Minier said OTC did "substantially less than that." The desk's volumes are still lower than spot volumes.
"There were rumors back in the day that you saw more routing on OTC desk than Spot, occasionally that happens but it's very rare," he said.
However, he said the volumes do correlate, so high volumes on exchanges often equate to high OTC volumes. Bitcoin and Ethereum remain the most popular products, according to Minier, but bitcoin cash, Monero and Tether make up what Minier said he sees as the top five assets at the desk. But, with the services the OTC desk provides, it sees more technical trades like GRIN as well, since the desk can guide clients through the process.
The Kraken desk is staffed by 19 people, and Minier said he thinks that's enough even in the face of 20x growth.
"We're not overly staffed I want to say, but we're staffed right and what we're focusing on is more efficiency and getting ourselves out there in a more public way," he said.
