Caspian ICO Raises $19.5 Million for Institutional Crypto Trading Platform

[Magician]

Cayman Island-based fintech startup Caspian has completed an eight-figure ICO ahead of schedule.

Founded earlier this year, Caspian ties together the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in a single user interface. The full-stack crypto asset management platform also offers compliance, algorithms, portfolio management, risk, and reporting. Its co-founders David Wills and Robert Dykes plan to channel 40 percent of the raised $19.5 million towards research and development.

The other 25 and 15 percent would go towards sales & marketing and application support, respectively. The founders have also allocated a considerable sum towards building new partnerships, managing accounts and legal, and miscellaneous administration costs.

“Selling out the crowd sale is a huge milestone in the growth of our company and our journey to build the first institutional grade full-stack crypto trading and risk management platform for professional traders and investors,” Caspian is a critical tool to assist the rapidly growing number of financial institutions seeking to trade cryptocurrencies.”
The news arrives at a time when a majority of ICO rounds have failed to raise capitals for their blockchain projects. The bearish mood of the crypto market has further made it difficult for projects to attract funds. Caspian nevertheless has managed to strike the right chords among investors for plenty of reasons.

Clients and Partners

Caspian is serving to the need for tools that could simplify crypto trading for an always-rising influx of investors. The platform explicitly targets institutional grade users, including crypto trading companies and hedge funds. Fidelity Investments, for instance, will be integrating the Caspian crypto asset management solution into its custodial solution. The company would utilize the platform to manage its customers’ digital assets, believing it would be more intuitive and user-friendly for their kind of work.

Including Fidelity, Caspian revealed that around 170 customers are waiting to sign up on their platform. The company has already added 15 names to its onboarding process, including Lykke, Bletchley Park, and ex-Point 72 manager Travis Kling’s Ikigai Asset Management. Caspian has also added 15 global institutions, including Techemy, Blockstars, OSL, and Galaxy Digital, which are live and trading on its platform.

US-based crypto exchanges Coinbase and Gemini have also entered a strategic partnership with Caspian, which will enable them to offer its sophisticated trading and portfolio management functionalities to their customers. Hong Kong-based p2p crypto exchange BitMEX has also integrated Caspian for the same services.

Notable crypto figures like Mike Novogratz, Mona El Isa, and Ari Paul have also joined the Cayman Islands startup as advisors.

“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,” Mona predicted. “It is exciting to see Caspian fill this gap with high-quality crypto-tools.”

Caspian will see a full-launch by the first quarter of 2019.

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