Karla Barker 
New Prime Brokerage Platform Uses Stablecoins
Integral, a company that’s been around since 1993 providing forex trading technology, just launched something called PrimeOne. It’s a crypto prime broker, but with a twist – everything runs on stablecoins instead of regular cash. All the funding and collateral happens through these dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies.
What’s interesting is how they’re handling the trust aspect. The company announced today that credit, trading, and settlement will all happen on-chain. As positions change value, USD stablecoin-based margin automatically moves between counterparties’ wallets in real time. They say this basically eliminates counterparty credit risk, which has been a big concern in crypto trading.
Though I should mention – PrimeOne will still have full visibility of clients’ balances and wallets. So it’s not completely hands-off.
Addressing Institutional Crypto Adoption Barriers
Harpal Sandhu, Integral’s CEO, pointed out something I’ve been thinking about too. “As institutional adoption of crypto accelerates, the lack of accessible credit remains the last major hurdle to widespread participation,” he said. That makes sense – traditional finance runs on credit, and crypto hasn’t really figured that part out yet.
PrimeOne aims to reduce risk, cost, and complexity while unlocking liquidity and profitability. It’s early days, but Virtu Financial has already signed on as an early user. Given Virtu’s size, that’s a pretty significant vote of confidence.
Scotte Moegling from Virtu mentioned they’re strong proponents of blockchain technology and see PrimeOne as demonstrating its “democratising capabilities.” He thinks the platform will give investors better pricing with less risk.
Integral’s Crypto Journey
Integral isn’t new to crypto, though they’ve been primarily a forex company for decades. They first entered the crypto space directly in 2023 with Integral Digital, a trading platform supporting cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. They developed that by partnering with Mint Exchange, an institutional crypto exchange.
This move into prime brokerage comes at a time when institutional demand for crypto seems to be heating up. Just recently, FalconX, another crypto prime broker, launched an electronic crypto options trading platform targeting institutions.
And the demand for these services appears real – Ripple just agreed to buy Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. Hidden Road’s International CEO mentioned there was a “natural relationship” between their firms, with Ripple being a known customer.
I’m curious to see how this stablecoin-based approach works in practice. On one hand, using stablecoins for everything could simplify settlement and reduce counterparty risk. On the other hand, it’s still early days for institutional crypto infrastructure. But with major players like Virtu getting involved, maybe we’re seeing the beginning of more mature crypto financial services.