ICO Trust Returning as Caspian Rakes in Nearly $20 Million Ahead of Deadline

A crypto project has revived the investors’ trust in initial coin offerings by raking in $19.5 million via crowdfunding.

Caspian, a Cayman Island-based project, achieved its hard cap before the set date, implying a successful kick-start for the development of its institutional crypto trading platform. A beta-testing round of the platform is live already, which displays the crypto listings of the biggest crypto exchanges, including Techemy, Blockstars, OSL, and Galaxy Digital, in a single user interface.

Further Developments

The raised $19.5 million would be channeled to enhance the research & development and sales & marketing of the Caspian platform, according to its official website. With a beta version already out, the future upgrades would see the inclusion of sophisticated trading algorithms, real-time and historical profit-and-loss and exposure tracking. But most importantly, Caspian would allow institutionally traders the much-needed interchangeability between crypto exchanges via a single dashboard.

The project has already garnered partnerships from leading crypto trading institutions like Coinbase, Gemini and BitMEX. As part of the deal, Caspian will integrate with the said exchanges to bring new sophisticated trading and portfolio management functionality. It would serve to the growing number of professional crypto trading firms around the world.

“We see this partnership as not only a tremendous commercial opportunity but as a chance to truly move forward the institutional adoption of crypto as a mature, tradable asset class,” said Kayvon Pirestani, Director of Institutional Sales at Coinbase, about Caspian.

The project also has renowned Bitcoin bulls like Mike Novogratz, Mona El Isa, and Ari Paul serving as advisors.

Institutional Money and Trading Tools

El Isa, the founder of MelonPort, an Ethereum-based asset management project, said that Caspian is attempting to fill the gap between institutional investors and the professional crypto trading tools.

“Cryptocurrencies will play an increasingly big role with institutional players, yet to date, the sophisticated trading and portfolio management tools have not been available for this asset class,” she recognized.

So far, the mainstream investors willing to inject massive amounts of money into the industry are limited by the lack of liquidity across online exchanges. They are therefore opting for mildly-regulated OTC markets by taking enormous counter party risks. Caspian’s co-founders, David Willis and Robert Dykes, emphasized the demand for tools that simplify the entry of institutional investment in the crypto space.

Dykes quoted Fidelity as an example of how even the world’s fifth largest asset management company is working towards mitigating the counter party risk in Bitcoin OTC markets, adding that tools like these are “gaining momentum.”

“With Fidelity announcing the launch of a much needed custodial solution that allows investors to outsource the safekeeping of their assets to a trusted intermediary, coupled with the intuitive and user-friendly nature of a software platform like Caspian for the management of these assets, the floodgates have opened for institutional money to enter the market,” he stated.

Caspian is reportedly in process of adding 170 customers to its platform, including Lykke, ID Theory, Bletchley Park, and ex-Point 72 manager Travis Kling’s Ikigai Asset Management.

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