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It should come as no surprise that, as it stands now, institutional investors need better tools. Not only do they need an easier, more secure way to purchase massive amounts of cryptocurrencies, but they also require special custodial services to minimize any risk associated with buying large amounts.
Kenetic, a crypto firm based in Hong Kong, and Tora, a trading firm, are creating yet another project looking to account for this gap. They are teaming up to create their own crypto project called Caspian — and the project has received enough buzz from established investors that it has raised some $16 million during its token presale.
Some of the investment firms include some big names such as Galaxy Investment Partners, Octagon Strategy, Techemy Capital, Global Advisors, and Bletchley Park as reported by David Wills of Kenetic. Galaxy Investment Partners is led by Mike Novogratz who is a major ex-hedge fund manager. Now, he manages a few of his own firms and has been a firm believer in the crypto space since the early days.
Kenetic has said that the project emerged out of a clear need, According to Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital, a firm that is partnered with the Caspian project: “Liquidity is fragmented across dozens of exchanges globally, each with their own quirky API connections. Professional trading software will facilitate greater liquidity in crypto assets.”
And indeed, professional trading software is currently the hot big thing in the crypto space as many banks and major investment firms scramble to create their own. All it takes it one commercially-successful platform for others to follow suit and that platform seems to be coming closer and closer to fruition.
Wills from Kenetic added that it is known that these trading platforms already exist for traditional trading, but they just need to be repurposed for cryptocurrency trading. Although the market sentiments towards ICOs have cooled significantly since last year, the Caspian project is still looking to hold one in early October. However, given that they have raised a significant amount from established investors, the public ICO will be considerably smaller. They are looking to raise $1.5 – $2 million during the public sale.
Wills however remarked that indeed Kenetic is even now “open for business.” Today, the company is already plugged into some 25 crypto exchanges and even offers a few packages with their own usable products for trading. However, the development of Caspian is a new direction for a company that never previously held an ICO nor tried to release a commercially-viable trading tool for institutional players.