Crypto Trader Dexterity Capital Launches Token Consulting, Market-Making Arm

Quant trading firm Dexterity Capital is spinning up a market-making service to help get budding crypto projects off the ground.

Called DCLiquidity, the new business wing aims to guide early-stage founders through the sometimes thorny technical, tokenomic, economic and legal mazes that precede even pre-seed funding rounds. Following the launch, it will make a market for the project’s token until liquidity builds naturally.

“Until then, you’ll need someone like us just to make sure that a normal trader will look at your product and say, ‘Hey, listen, there’s enough organic [liquidity] – be it order-book depth or tight spreads – for this to be worth my time to trade,” said Arpan Gautam, Dexterity Capital's head of business.

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It’s a change of pace for the hush-hush proprietary trading firm. Dexterity’s high-speed algorithms swapped $1.2 trillion in tokens last year, Gautam said; they now execute up to 200,000 market-neutral trades a day.

Larger competitors run similar token-startup consulting services. The thinking goes: it pays to hire someone who knows someone – be they market makers, exchanges or venture investors – if you are a pre-launch founder.

A source at one big-name trading firm said its consulting line is seeing plenty of activity, one sign of founders’ hunger for guidance.

Some early projects navigate the liquidity labyrinth by adding well-connected market makers like Jump Capital or Alameda Research to their cap tables. DCLiquidity may itself invest in certain projects it supports, but not all, Gautum said.