SwapGlobal Reuses $20B Fund’s Collateral to Execute Derivatives Trade

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SwapGlobal, a technology-first synthetic crypto prime broker, today announced it has executed a proof-of-concept OTC bitcoin derivatives transaction for an investment and advisory institution of a global management consulting firm with over $20 billion in assets under management.

In the transaction, the investment fund executed a bitcoin derivatives strategy. The fund held the collateral to support the transaction with a top-three U.S. financial services company. SwapGlobal was able to reuse that collateral to meet the offshore derivatives venue’s margin requirements. The fund succeeded in accessing derivatives liquidity without opening exchange accounts, managing off-exchange margining, or taking direct custody of BTC.

For large institutions that have stayed on the sidelines of digital assets, the structure addresses a core problem in crypto: how to combine qualified custody, efficient funding by reusing the collateral, and OTC derivatives in a way that passes internal risk and compliance scrutiny. In crypto, investment funds effectively pay for their swap dealer to meet margin on hedging venues at the dealer’s high cost of capital. By contrast, SwapGlobal’s model lets the hedge fund keep assets with a trusted custodian while reusing that collateral to access the fund's own lower financing rates, saving approximately 1% on the derivative amount.

“This proof of concept shows that large, traditional institutions can run crypto derivatives strategies with the same expectations they have in regular prime brokerage: safe custody, efficient funding and clean execution,” said René van Kesteren, Founder and CEO of SwapGlobal. “We’re solving the tension between keeping a client’s collateral safe and still being able to finance our hedges economically.”

Amsterdam-based Kenzoll Capital partnered with SwapGlobal on the implementation of the transaction.

“Our partnership with SwapGlobal is central to our strategy of backing the most innovative firms solving the unique challenges of the U.S. crypto market,” said Corné Melissen, Founder of Kenzoll Capital. “SwapGlobal proves you can keep assets safely with a qualified custodian, tap offshore derivatives liquidity, and still get funding terms a large hedge fund can live with.”

About SwapGlobal
SwapGlobal is a technology-first synthetic crypto prime broker that lets hedge funds, ETFs and other institutions run digital asset strategies via OTC derivatives instead of spot, combining transparent electronic execution, flexible collateral and creative structuring to reduce regulatory, custody, venue and credit frictions. SwapGlobal is backed by leading investors, including Cantor Fitzgerald, BH Digital, and Circle Ventures, among others.