Share this article
1 in 5 Financial Institutions Exploring Crypto Trading, Survey Finds
A survey conducted by Thomson Reuters found that around 20 percent of its financial services clients are mulling trading cryptocurrencies in 2018.
By David Floyd
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 7:52 a.m. Published Apr 24, 2018, 8:00 a.m.
Make us preferred on Google
Mass media company Thomson Reuters has found that one in five of its financial services clients is considering trading cryptocurrencies this year.
The firm recently surveyed more than 400 clients on its data and trading platforms, including Eikon, REDI, FXall and Elektron. About 20 percent of these clients were "really interested and actively exploring" launching cryptocurrency trading operations in 2018, the firm's director of new content initiatives Sam Chadwick told CoinDesk.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Chadwick added:
"The feedback really astonished us a bit."
According to a press statement, 70 percent of the firms looking into trading plan to begin in three to six months, while another 22 percent aim to start in six to 12 months.
"This is a major change from a year ago," Neill Penney, Thomson Reuters' co-head of trading, said in the statement.
Chadwick emphasized the shift in attitudes, telling CoinDesk that a year ago, "as we were engaging customers, none of them had any particular interest in cryptocurrencies." Clients were instead interested in "the blockchain side of things, smart contracts."
Interest has since notably shifted towards cryptocurrencies. For example, within Eikon's foreign exchange category, traffic to the landing page for cryptocurrencies comes second only to the euro, Chadwick said. Thomson Reuters has also supplemented its bitcoin price feed with data for ether, litecoin, bitcoin cash and Ripple's XRP, as well as bitcoin futures prices and indices from CryptoCompare.
Chadwick says that this rapid expansion beyond bitcoin brings up "the interesting question about altcoins, and how diverse do we go here?"
Some survey respondents said, "we'll trade anything," he continued. However, in general, interest concentrated around those coins with larger market valuations. A small number further expressed interest in trading ICO tokens, but "privacy coins" such as zcash and monero had few takers. And a few said they were amenable to trading cryptocurrencies, but only through ETFs or similar instruments.
Chadwick would not name the clients that had expressed interest in cryptocurrency trading, but he said they included large asset managers, hedge funds and "some of the trading desks at some of the largest banks."
Speculating as to why financial institutions are suddenly interested in cryptocurrency trading, Chadwick said there was "obviously" some correlation with cryptocurrencies' prices. He added, though, that traditional financial players might be interested in gaining experience with tokenized assets in general, since they anticipate a wave of new instruments such as crypto bonds, blockchain-based equity and tokenized dividends.
"We could start seeing some really, really clever stuff," he said, adding:
"If these organizations have no competence to trade crypto assets at all, they'll be locked out of a broad segment."
Chart image via Shutterstock.
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
How a 'perpetual’ stock trick could solve Michael Saylor’s $8 billion debt problem
The bitcoin treasury firm is using perpetual preferreds to retire convertibles, offering a potential framework for managing long-dated leverage.
What to know:
- Strive upsized its SATA follow on offering beyond $150 million, pricing the perpetual preferred at $90.
- The structure offers a blueprint for replacing fixed maturity convertibles with perpetual equity capital that removes refinancing risk.
- Strategy has a $3 billion convertible tranche due in June 2028 with a $672.40 conversion price, which could be addressed using a similar preferred equity approach.
Top Stories
