Or wondering how to buy large crypto trades without moving the market?
Buying and selling cryptocurrencies have never been easier. With the growing of cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, you can quickly and easily buy your first Bitcoin online using a variety of payment methods.
However, if you’re looking to buy/sell large-volumes of crypto, trading on a regular crypto exchange might not be the best option.
Thankfully, there’s a better way to buy large quantities of BTC without price slippage –Bitcoin OTC trading.
We’ve unearthed many great crypto OTC desks for large-scale cryptocurrency traders that solve the problem of buying/selling large volumes without affecting the market.
But here, we’ve winnowed the list down to just five OTC trading services for you to consider.
Kraken Binance Gemini Huobi itBit
Location U.S. Malta U.S. China U.S.
Minimum Trade $100,000 $10,000 No Minimum $100,000 $100,000
Fees No Fees No Fees NA 0.00%-1.00% 0.10%
Supported crypto Bitcoin (XBT)
Ethereum (ETH)
Tether (USDT)
Monero (XMR)
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
Augur (REP)Bitcoin (BTC)
Ethereum (ETH)
Litecoin (LTC)
and 70+ coinsBitcoin (BCH)
Ether (ETH)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Litecoin (LTC)
Zcash (ZEC)Bitcoin (BTC)
Ethereum (ETH)
Ripple (XRP)
EOS
Litecoin (LTC)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
USDTBitcoin (BTC)
Ethereum (ETH)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Litecoin (LTC)
Stellar Lumens (XLM)
Sign up Kraken Free Sign up Binance Free Sign up Gemini Free Sign up Huobi Free Sign up itBit Free
Buy Large Quantities of BTC through OTC
Here’s the thing…it’s exceptionally hard to purchase $100,000 or $1 million of Bitcoin without causing unfavorable price movements in the small, illiquid crypto markets.
For example, if you want to buy 10 BTC all at once on an exchange, you’d have to break it down into many smaller orders. As your orders are slowly being filled, the prices could shift up considerably, resulting in a different price than what you’d expect. This will result in a more expensive trade.
This is called slippage.
Due to slippage, you may end up buying Bitcoin at significantly higher prices than the average day trader.
Or you can open accounts at multiple Bitcoin exchanges, undergo each of the “Know Your Customer” (KYC) procedures and trade using your money on these exchanges.
However, that typically required a substantial investment of time and effort – but it still won’t guarantee that your orders will be filled at your desired price.
What’s more, storing all your funds on a centralized crypto exchange can be very risky.
That’s where Bitcoin OTC brokers come into place.
What is Bitcoin OTC Trading?
Bitcoin Over-the-counter (OTC) trading is simply a process of buying or selling cryptocurrency off-exchange for maximum security and privacy. Since the price is known upfront and fixed, this allows you to get a better average price than using a traditional crypto exchanges.
A person who provides this professional service is called a Bitcoin OTC broker. A broker will facilitates the trades between two counter-parties by phone or over computer networks. They will find, negotiate directly with prospective buyer/seller for your desired trade. It’s easier, faster, and safer than using an ordinary exchange.
Benefits of buying/selling via a crypto OTC broker
If you’ve been trading on regular crypto exchanges for some time, you’d notice that the price tends to get higher as your order size goes up.
This is why, traditional crypto exchanges are great for those who only plan to purchase a small amount of crypto.
When it comes to accumulating or distributing large volumes of crypto, how you execute the trade really matter.
If you’re a high or ultra-high-net-worth individual looking to investing in bitcoin, you should always use a Bitcoin OTC (Over-The-Counter) service.
Here are a few benefits of using OTC trading desk to convert regular (fiat) money into crypto, and vice versa:
- No Price Slippage – OTC brokers will send you a quotation for the entire order. This means that you’re able trade large volumes at one fixed price.
- High liquidity – OTC brokers have a network of buyers and sellers that are ready to trade with you at the most advantageous pricing possible. The deep pools of global liquidity ensure minimal market impact, regardless of the size of the order.
- Fast – In most cases, once order is placed, you can expect to get your coins on the same business day.
- Private – Prices and order books are not publicly available on OTC desks. You can trade privately and hide your total order size from other market participants.
- Secure – Bitcoin will be delivered straight to your own wallet address, not on an exchange wallet.
How does Bitcoin OTC work?
The OTC trading process is relatively simple. In general, this is how Bitcoin OTC works:
1. Sign up for a free OTC account. You’ll be asked to provide personal information such as your name, contact details, proof of ID and trading requirements.
2. When you decide you want to buy/sell a large amount of crypto assets, you can directly interact with the over-the-counter dealer via chat, text, SMS or any supported method.
You can submit your oder by saying:
You: I’d like to buy 150 Bitcoin (BTC).
OTC trader: I can sell you 150 BTC at a price of $20,000 USD per Bitcoin.
3. You choose whether to accept or decline the price quotes. If you agree, then the trade is confirmed and the price is locked in. You’ll need to provide a Bitcoin address where they can send your purchased crypto.
4. Complete trade. You make a payment to the OTC bank account. Once deposited is received, they’ll send the coins directly to your wallet address, no 3rd party escrow, and the trade is complete.
5 Best Bitcoin OTC Brokers (Global Coverage)
Executing large orders through crypto OTC has inherent pitfalls due to the lack of transparency and regulation.
Unlike traditional crypto exchanges where orders are available for everyone to see, OTC orders are never listed publicly.
Besides that, crypto OTC markets are also subject to fewer regulations.
With that in mind, it’s very important that you only deal with trusted, regulated and reliable brokers. You don’t want to get outplayed or delayed especially when dealing with large trades.
Here are top 5 Bitcoin OTC brokers to help you securely make large crypto trades anywhere in the world.
1. Kraken OTC
Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the world’s largest, most successful crypto exchanges that offers plenty of services including futures contracts, Staking, account management, spot trading, margin trading and OTC deck.
With the acquisition of Circle Trade (one of the most recognized OTC desks in the market) and Bit Trade (the first crypto OTC desk in Australia), Kraken is growing faster than ever.
By combining several crypto platforms into one single interface, you can be sure you’ll get the most competitive prices through Kraken OTC.
I like its clear, easy-to-use and intuitive interface.
As an active OTC client, you will automatically gain access to the new Electronic OTC dashboard. You can request quotes for buy and sell orders and get automated price quotes in seconds. There’s no delay. This is great, as we know that 1% move in either direction can be consequential.
Here’s how to trade with Kraken OTC brokers:
- Login to your Kraken account and requests a quote.
- The OTC desk will give you a price for the transaction. You’ll have to decide whether to accept the quote within a given time frame.
-
If you accept, you’ll receive an email confirmation for the transaction. Make a payment and they’ll send the crypto directly to your wallet address.
- You can see your accepted quote under “Quote History” on the dashboard.
Kraken OTC desk is available for use by anyone in the world with a minimum order size of $100,000. It’s open 24/7, except major holidays.
With Kraken OTC, you’ll get a private and personalized service to acquire a significant amount of crypto without moving the market.
Kraken supports a wide variety of crypto assets and fiat currencies including:
Fiat currencies:
- US Dollars (USD)
- Euros (EUR)
- Canadian Dollars (CAD)
- Japanese Yen (JPY)
- British pounds (GBP)
- Swiss francs (CHF)
- Australian Dollars (AUD)
Digital assets:
- Bitcoin (XBT)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Tether (USDT)
- Monero (XMR)
- Ethereum Classic (ETC)
- Augur (REP)
- And more…
The best part? Kraken does not charge you any fees for using their crypto OTC trading services. You’ll get the best price which is near the spot rate, regardless of trade size. That’s the price you will pay, nothing more.
If you’re new to OTC trading, simply sign up for a free Kraken account and contact OTC support. They provide 1-on-1 service and guide you throughout the onboarding process.
2. Binance OTC
Similar to Kraken, Binance also offer deep liquidity and a personalized way for institutions and high net-worth individuals to trade large block sizes quickly and securely, over the internet.
Interestingly, Binance not only offers Bitcoin OTC trading, but also supports crypto-to-crypto trades on almost any coin. You can even trade unlisted pairings such as Litecoin (LTC)/ Ripple (XRP) on Binance OTC desk.
Binance OTC currently supports trading of 70+ different cryptocurrencies and tokens.
Want to buy or sell a substantial portion of a new altcoin? Chances are, you’ll find those rare coins at the best available price, in just one single buy order on Binance OTC.
To get started, simply create an account on Binance and verify your account. Then, click “Binance OTC” to start trading on OTC Trading Portal. You’ll receive price quotes almost instantly. Once the price is agreed, the trade can be completed in a matter of minutes.
With Binance, you don’t need to create a new wallet. They will send coins to your Binance account.
The minimum trade size is $10,000. This low entry point opens up an opportunity for average retail traders as well as large-scale crypto users to make a big trade without any significant impact on the markets.
Gemini was founded in 2014 by the Winklevoss Twins. Gemini provides the most reliable, secure and efficient way to buy, sell, trade, and hold cryptocurrency.
What makes Gemini different is that the company fully embraces the regulation and compliance. Making it the world’s first licensed Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange.
One notable feature of Gemini is Gemini Clearing. A 100% electronic clearing and settlement solution for OTC crypto traders.
Unlike other OTC crypto platforms on the list, Gemini does not have OTC trading desk.
Instead, Gemini Clearing allows traders to negotiate off-exchange. This means that a deal will happen directly between sellers and buyers without interference of an exchange.
Gemini also makes OTC Trading available for everyone, as is no minimum trade size.
You can use Gemini Clearing to trade, as long as you have your account verified.
And all the transaction information is known only by the two parties involved.
To start using Gemini Clearing, both parties of the trade must be fully funded. If you like the rates you see, you can proceed to confirm trades and receive quick settlement directly into your Gemini account.
Or you can contact support to request access to a full suite of premium off-exchange services.
With Huobi OTC desk, you can trade large volumes of popular crypto, outside of an open order book exchange, such as:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Ripple (XRP)
- EOS
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- USDT
Three things great about Huobi OTC are (1) there’s no extra fees on top of quotation, (2) Huobi is regulated and reliable and (3) you get 1-on-1 trade support and make large block trade at anytime without hassle.
Huobi OTC is available in most countries, except Mainland China, Taiwan(China), the United States, Germany, Iraq, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Montenegro, Tunisia, Lebanon and Libya.
When it comes to fees, Huobi OTC has a tiered fee structure for makers. Details as follows:
On the other hands, takers can trade on Huobi OTC for free.
They offer a wide array of services, from fiat-to-crypto trading to escrow, custody and crypto OTC trading.
With itBit OTC desk, you can complete trades outside its online order books to buy or sell the following cryptocurrencies:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Stellar Lumens (XLM)
itBit charges a flat fee of 1% per transaction and no crypto withdrawal fees.
With a global network of clients across 100+ countries, itBit is able to offer some of the deepest liquidity pools for large crypto block trade (above $100,000) at a reasonable price without moving the markets against you.
Simply submit your enquiry and itBit OTC team will contact you for your desired trade.
Conclusion
There you go! 5 best platforms that offer off-exchange or over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trades.
What do you think?