CORRECTED-Japan’s SBI to buy minority stake in UK crypto market maker B2C2 – Reuters

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He added, “We do not desire to restrict ourselves to crypto.

(Corrects first paragrapah to has accepted buy, not has purchased).
By Alun John and Takashi Umekawa.
HONG KONG/TOKYO, July 1 (Reuters) – An unit of Japanese financial corporation SBI Holdings has consented to buy a minority stake in London-based cryptocurrency marketmaker B2C2 for $30 million, B2C2 said in a statement on Wednesday.
They also announced a collaboration in between B2C2 and SBI Financial Services, the current example of more institutionally-focused crypto-currency gamers consolidating incumbent institutions to use extra services to meet their clients more intricate requirements.
Japanese brokerages, like SBI, are seeking new sources of earnings, as an economic downturn has hit their core income stream of regional retail traders.
SBI will utilize B2C2s liquidity to support its clients trading cryptocurrencies, while B2C2 will tap SBIs resources, specifically its balance sheet, to launch a complete prime brokerage for both crypto and other possession classes, Max Boonen B2C2s creator said in an interview.
Prime brokers provide services to hedge funds and other active trading firms however Boonan said that partially since of the lack of access to funds, some normal prime brokerage services like cleaning and funding were under-developed in the cryptocurrency market.
He included, “We dont desire to limit ourselves to crypto. Crypto is the important things we do because that was how we started, … were keeping our eyes on the reward which is that the [prime brokerage] market is a 20 billion annual earnings market,” he said.
B2C2 presently offers liquidity to banks, hedge funds and exchanges.
It currently has a licence to operate in Japan, which has among the worlds most established crypto currency markets, and regulative frameworks.
Yoshitaka Kitao, President and CEO of SBI Holdings, said in the B2C2 statement that SBI would work to establish innovative new crypto items.
A sepatate SBI declaration said that it would acquire a stake in B2C2. (Reporting by Alun John, extra reporting by Takashi Umekawa in Tokyo; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore).