TP ICAP plans to join Fidelity, standard chartered to launch crypto-trading platform

Interdealer broker TP ICAP is launching a crypto-trading platform alongside Fidelity Investments and Standard Chartered, Reuters reported.

• The platform, which is awaiting approval by the U.K.'s financial regulator, will launch later this year, offering bitcoin (BTC, +3.41%) trading initially with ether (ETH, +7.54%) to be added later.

• The venture's aim is to make trading of crypto more like that of stocks, bonds, and foreign exchange for institutional investors, Reuters reported Tuesday.

• This will be achieved by offering a post-trade infrastructure and separate execution and settlement, something that is the "opposite to the models that exist currently," according to Duncan Trenholme, co-head of digital assets at TP ICAP.

• Standard Chartered earlier this month announced a venture to a create a digital-asset brokerage and exchange platform alongside digital-asset platform OSL, demonstrating increasing interest in the crypto space by the bank.