New York based bitcoin exchange, Coinsetter, and foreign industry consulting firm, ShiftForex, have partnered to create Bitbroker. Launched today, Bitbroker will be providing bitcoin Liquidity and market data to forex brokers to allow them to provide bitcoin trading to their customers. Operating with a liquidity bridge for the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) ) platform, Bitbroker becomes accessible to nearly every forex broker.
Launching the liquidity solution, Bitbroker enters a field of MT4 supporting products that also includes offerings from FXOpen, Exgate, and Ibinex. With MT4 accounting for around 25% of global online retail forex trading volumes, creating offerings that are compatible with the platform is viewed as the most efficient method to distribute bitcoin liquidity.
For brokers, bitcoin products have proven to appeal to new client types as well as providing more asset diversity. However, after an array of larger brokers such as IG Markets, Markets.com, Plus500, FXOpen and eToro launched the product in 2013 and 2014, bitcoin trading has cooled off due to a decline in liquidity. On the other hand, with the NYSE and Nasdaq becoming involved with the technology, bitcoin as an asset class has gained credibility which should allow it to appeal to a larger set of customers.
According to Coinsetter and ShiftForex, brokers will have access to source margin trading accounts with 5:1 leverage and the ability to short bitcoin. In addition, to distributing the liquidity via a MT4 bridge, Bitbroker also supports FIX 4.4 API connections, leveraging existing technology that Coinsetter had launched earlier in the year.
Bitcoin is a natural product extension for FX brokers worldwide - Ian McAfee
Commeting publicly about the news, Jaron Lukasiewicz, CEO of Coinsetter and Cavirtex stated “We built Coinsetter to support institutional liquidity and low latency trade execution, which makes it an ideal fit for FX brokers globally. We’ve worked closely with Shift to develop Bitbroker, a comprehensive and truly turnkey solution for the market that we are excited to launch today.”
Ian McAfee, CEO of Shift Forex added “Bitcoin is a natural product extension for FX brokers worldwide. With its extensive liquidity, margin and API solutions, Coinsetter was the clear choice for a turnkey liquidity service for our broker clients. We are excited to bring this cutting edge product to a broader global market.”
