In a step closer towards the institutionalization of bitcoin trading, a New York firm announced that it is expanding its operations to include trading in blocks of bitcoin. Genesis Trading, a division of SecondMarket, says that it is currently the only licensed broker-dealer that offers this service.

Genesis is now specializing its operations to focus on bitcoin trading with its own team of traders and support staff. According to its Chief Executive Brendan O’Connor, their plan is to generate business from the hedge funds and private investors who have shown an interest in the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin Trading Forecast

“It is still early days,” O’Connor clarified. “This idea you can have two parties that don’t know each other come together and have a seamless, frictionless transaction at very little to no cost, in a decentralised environment, is revolutionary. Institutional interest is going to continue to grow.”

Wall Street firms have also shown an interest to expand towards bitcoin trading, with former JPMorgan executive Blythe Masters saying that she is also launching a venue for buyers and sellers to transact in bitcoin. According to her, this would cut the time and cost of settlement while using blockchain to ensure transaction security.

As of this writing, roughly 14 million bitcoin are in circulation, amounting to a market size of roughly $3.09 billion. Among these, around 50,000 bitcoin are traded each day on public exchanges such as BitFinex, Bitstamp and Btce.

Prior to this, SecondMarket has been known for offering private market Facebook shares before its initial public offering and trading illiquid assets such as auction-rate securities to bankruptcy claims to student loans. It’s no surprise that the company is making one of the first steps in pushing for mainstream bitcoin trading acceptance. Genesis Trading claims to have carried out about 800,000 transactions worth over $300m over the past couple of years.