BitGo announced on Wednesday the launch of BitGo Global Markets, an institutional trading and financial solutions business that brings together liquidity, execution, financing, derivatives and settlement. Pete Janney, who joined BitGo from NYDIG, will lead it, according to the company's Business Wire release .
The unit merges BitGo Prime, the company's institutional trading and financing business that has operated since 2020, with the derivatives, collateral management and structured finance capabilities added through its purchase of NYDIG's institutional trading business. BitGo completed that acquisition on August 27 , bringing about 30 NYDIG employees and its institutional client relationships.
BitGo lists six service lines under the new business:
- Execution: spot and over-the-counter block trading, supported by what BitGo calls its Global Liquidity Layer, which connects clients to exchanges, market makers and OTC counterparties.
- Prime financing: borrowing against digital asset collateral to fund trading positions or raise liquidity without selling.
- Derivatives and structured solutions: options, swaps and bespoke structures for eligible counterparties.
- Collateral management: margin monitoring, collateral calls and liquidation management, with collateral held in qualified custody.
- Asset management: managed strategies, private funds and tailored investment solutions.
- Research: institutional market analysis.
Clearing and settlement run through BitGo's Go Network, according to TokenPost's summary of the announcement . CEO Mike Belshe said BitGo has "a strong foundation across custody, liquidity, trading, financing, and settlement." BitGo shares were up 3.4% in pre-market trading on Wednesday after a 3.7% gain on Tuesday, The Block reported .
BitGo's trading business drives its revenue growth and carries its thinnest margin. Blockhead reported in September that BitGo's second-quarter revenue rose 79.6% to $4.3 billion, but that the company posted a GAAP net loss of $19 million and its margin on digital asset sales narrowed to 17 basis points from 32. The same piece noted that Singapore had become the largest trading desk inside BitGo Prime , with local volumes more than doubling in the first half of the year. The NYDIG team adds derivatives and financing, which typically carry different economics from spot execution, though BitGo has not said how it expects Global Markets to affect its margins.
The business launch followed another BitGo announcement on Tuesday. BitGo Bank & Trust began offering institutional Bitcoin staking through Stacks, in which eligible custody clients bond STX worth about 5% of their BTC for roughly six months and earn rewards paid in BTC, with the principal timelocked on Bitcoin in qualified custody. The target yield is about 3% a year and is not guaranteed. 24/7 Wall St. noted that Stacks reported about 735 BTC bonded across its first two periods.
Together the two launches continue a run of product expansion Blockhead has followed. In October, BitGo added a Jupiter-run validator for SOL staking from custody , and in June it turned its bank charter into a DeFi yield gateway through vault partnerships.
The first quarterly results after the launch will show whether the added derivatives and financing lines change the thin margin on digital asset sales, and whether Global Markets' coverage teams, which BitGo says will work with clients directly, bring in the larger balances the division is built for.
