Nelson Minier on Running a Bitcoin OTC Desk - WBD169
The Peter McCormack Show
Peter McCormack
4.7 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2019
⏱️ 66 minutes
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Summary
Location: New York Date: Thursday, 14th Nov Project: Kraken Role: Head of OTC Sales & Trading
Liquidity is crucial for any tradeable asset. A liquid market means lots of buyers and sellers, making it easy to move in and out of a position without paying a premium or selling at a discounted price. Increased liquidity also means a smaller spread (the gap between the highest bid and the lowest ask).
Bitcoin is the most liquid cryptocurrency by far but compared to traditional stocks, bonds or precious metals, it is still comparatively illiquid. For smaller trades this doesn't present a significant problem, however, for large traders buying and selling tens, hundreds or even thousands of Bitcoin, this can present a challenge as even $100,000 can move the market significantly, especially during times of low volume.
Large traders have the option of using an over-the-counter service which allows them to place an order which is fulfilled by the OTC desk utilising multiple exchanges or other OTC clients orders to limit the effect that these large trades have on the market.
In this interview, I talk to Nelson Minier. Nelson is a Wall Street veteran who, for the last two years, has been head of Kraken's OTC desk. We discuss working on Wall Street, how an OTC desk operates, and if institutional investors are buying Bitcoin.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the What Bit Bitcoin Did Podcast. |
| 0:05.0 | Hi there from Indianapolis, how are you all? |
| 0:09.0 | It's my first time in the city. |
| 0:11.0 | Cool place, having a great time. |
| 0:13.0 | Anyway, welcome to the What Bitcoin did podcast, |
| 0:15.9 | which is brought to you by The Mighty Cracken, |
| 0:18.4 | the best place to buy, sell and trade, Bitcoin. |
| 0:21.3 | I'm your host, Peter McCormackack and today I've got an interview |
| 0:24.2 | Wernell Saminee, the Wall Street veteran who is now heading up Krakons OTC |
| 0:28.4 | desk, but before that I've got a message from my badass sponsors. Make sure |
| 0:32.2 | you check them now. It is a sponsor |
| 0:33.8 | to pay for me to do all this to get all these amazing interviews. So first up we have |
| 0:38.3 | Wire. Have you checked them out yet? They've been sponsoring the podcast for over a month |
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| 0:44.8 | Come on, do us a solid. Go and have a look at what they are doing. |
| 0:48.8 | Why I have been helping companies across the space offer Bitcoin on boarding. So whether you are a solo |
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| 0:58.8 | want to offer your users a fast and easy way to purchase Bitcoin, then you have to talk to Wire. |
| 1:05.0 | Since 2013, the Wire have focused on taking care of all of the heavy lifting. |
| 1:09.7 | All those pain-in-the-ass things like compliance, payments and liquidity so you can focus on |
| 1:14.1 | building your core offering. If you're working on the next killer app, don't fuck it up. |
| 1:18.2 | Do not let the regulators kill it. If you want to find out more, reach out to wire |
... |
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