Crypto Market Makers: The Unsung Heroes of Digital Asset Markets

Crypto market making is a crucial practice in digital asset markets that provides continuous buy and sell liquidity to improve market depth and spreads.

Market makers quote bid and ask prices simultaneously, creating available counterparties without buyers and sellers needing to arrive at the same time. This allows trades to occur closer to market prices with lower impact.

The best crypto market makers are measured by observable metrics such as venue coverage, spreads, depth, uptime, execution infrastructure, reporting, and regulatory/tax compliance. GSR, for example, regularly reports its market making KPIs, including spread, depth, volume, market share, uptime, and volatility.

Market makers can directly make markets in liquidity at trading launch for a new asset listing, creating liquid bid and ask books. However, the hiring of a token market maker does not guarantee a listing on an exchange, as exchanges self-list at their own discretion according to their internal processes.