Trends in FX Trading 2021

While the larger FX market ecosystem continues its long-term transition from a dealer-to-dealer and dealer-to-client market structure toward an all-to-all market, the cryptocoin market originated as an A2A trading environment. Yet, in recent years, functional roles emerged within cryptocoin markets that mimic some, limited elements of the traditional multi-tiered FX market, which GreySpark believes provide opportunities for traditional sellside institutions.

This report outlines five possible business models for sellside cryptocoin franchises, and it delineates the required trading technology stack for each. On initial inspection, the overlap with traditional FX trading technology stacks is apparent, but meaningful differences exist technologically and operationally.

Beyond the sellside, FX trading technology vendors are eyeing opportunities to expand their footprint by positioning their solutions as fit-for-purpose offerings across both traditional FX products and cryptocurrencies. As a consequence of the crypto-driven innovation in FX trading technology vendor offerings, the current trading technology vendor landscape elucidated within this report – wherein many fit-for-purpose FX solutions exist because of technological commoditisation – is likely to become more functionally differentiated over the short-to-medium term.