Author: momo, ChainCatcher
This year, the veteran crypto market maker GSR has been making frequent moves.
Recently, GSR announced the completion of its acquisition of the SEC-registered broker-dealer Equilibrium Capital Services and renamed it GSR Securities. This means that GSR has obtained a broker-dealer license regulated by the U.S. FINRA, enabling it to participate in the trading and brokerage of securities-like digital assets under the U.S. compliance framework.
Prior to this, it had completed several key intensive layouts: In March, it acquired two token consulting firms; in April, it jointly launched a crypto ETF on Nasdaq and invested in the tokenization platform Libeara; in May , it introduced a strategic investment from SC Ventures under Standard Chartered Bank.
What exactly is GSR plotting behind these intensive actions? And what other collective actions are other crypto market makers taking?
From Crypto Market Making to “Web3 Investment Bank”
As early as 2025, GSR CEO Xin Song positioned the company as a “Crypto Capital Markets Platform” and has repeatedly mentioned its evolution towards a “Web3 Investment Bank.”
He also mentioned the motivation behind the transformation. In his view, the issues with crypto projects are never just in one single link; the entire chain is fragmented. For example, from token design, financing, listing, to liquidity arrangements, different institutions need to be approached separately, and the goals of these institutions are not aligned, resulting in high coordination costs. Therefore, what they hope to do is bring as many services surrounding the token lifecycle as possible into one system.
With this direction in mind, starting from last year or even earlier, GSR has been continuously complementing its capabilities through licenses, acquisitions, and investments.
In early 2025 , GSR obtained UK FCA registration status, entering the regulated system. Subsequently, it acquired the FINRA-registered broker-dealer Equilibrium Capital Services, which was renamed GSR Securities upon completion of regulatory approval this year. This change is not just about acquiring another compliant identity; it gives GSR the ability to interface with traditional capital markets.
Beyond licenses, GSR has also begun moving its services earlier into the issuance phase.
In March this year, it acquired Autonomous and Architech for $57 million. The former focuses on foundation operations and financing coordination, while the latter focuses on token economics design and liquidity strategy.
After the merger, the entire chain from token design and financing to listing and market making begins to be integrated. These stages were previously often dispersed among different institutions but are now gradually being consolidated into a unified service system.
But the more significant change is that services have started extending from “how to issue a token” further to “how to manage assets.”
GSR mentioned in a public interview that many foundations and protocols hold significant amounts of their own tokens in the early stages but lack a mature financial system to manage these assets. As a result, the assets are highly concentrated, extremely volatile, and it is difficult to form a stable source of funds. Therefore, they are also gradually expanding into the asset management space.
In addition to helping crypto enterprises build crypto treasuries last year, GSR also began launching ETF funds this year.
In April this year, GSR launched its first ETF, the GSR Crypto Core3 ETF, which includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana in a unified portfolio and generates returns through staking mechanisms.
Meanwhile, GSR is also betting on the tokenization direction.
This year, it invested in Libeara, a platform incubated by Standard Chartered's SC Ventures . This platform already supports the issuance of over $10 billion in on-chain assets and possesses relevant licenses from Singapore's MAS. Interestingly, shortly after this, SC Ventures made a reverse investment in GSR, becoming its first external strategic shareholder since its founding in 2013.
This cross-shareholding has transformed the relationship from a business partnership to a capital alliance, granting GSR more direct access to banking systems, institutional networks, and compliance channels.
In public information, GSR also mentioned having encountered tokenization demands for various assets including film studios, farmland, real estate, and accounts receivable.
From licensing and compliance capabilities to consulting, issuance, market making, asset management, and secondary liquidity, GSR is attempting to gradually complete the puzzle of a “web3 investment bank.”
The Collective Change-Seeking of Crypto Market Makers
GSR is actually not an isolated case of transformation but a microcosm of the collective change-seeking among crypto market makers.
Over the past year, the actions of leading market makers have shown clear convergence. On one hand, they continue to strengthen their compliance and licensing systems; on the other hand, they are constantly extending their business beyond market making.
For example, Keyrock , while entering the U.S. market and setting up a New York office, is also advancing compliance layout under the EU's MiCA framework and has entered the asset management business by acquiring a fund management company; B2C2 has obtained MiCA authorization, expanding its business to more complex institutional OTC and stablecoin exchange scenarios. Wintermute , while strengthening its institutional trading capabilities, has begun venturing into new areas such as prediction markets, DeFi treasury curation, and tokenized gold trading; DWF Labs is also attempting to extend from liquidity provision to real-world asset directions, including gold trading and physical delivery.
Crypto market makers seem to have formed a similar path: first entering mainstream regulatory systems through licensing and geographical expansion, then using OTC and institutional liquidity as core business entry points into the institutional market, followed by gradual extension into asset management, tokenized assets, and more complex financial products.
The underlying driving force may be that the crypto market-making industry is transitioning from high profitability to intense competition and low error tolerance.
First, there is “less money”. With the decline of altcoins and the bear market, project market-making budgets have also significantly decreased. Project teams themselves have become smarter. After experiencing multiple cycles, they have a better understanding of market-making mechanisms and profit margins.
Moreover, it's a case of “more monks but less gruel”. The number of projects with market-making value has decreased, but the number of market makers has increased. The result is that quality liquidity is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few top-tier teams, while a large number of long-tail projects are neither profitable nor have growth potential. Many market makers are essentially competing for limited returns within an increasingly narrow range, with marginal space being squeezed thin.
Meanwhile, competition is also expanding outward. The emergence of new tracks such as on-chain market making, derivatives, and tokenized assets is causing differentiation in the crypto market maker landscape, and market makers are being required to possess more systematic capabilities.
And harder to ignore is the pressure from compliance and risk incidents. Regulation is accelerating, with the U.S. and EU MiCA systems gradually taking effect. After this, licenses and audits have become basic thresholds, not just bonuses. Coupled with extreme market conditions like those on October 11th last year, a perception is reinforced: teams without systematic risk control capabilities will eventually be washed out.
In summary, the way to make money in the crypto market-making business has changed. The role of crypto market makers seems to be evolving from a trading industry reliant on information asymmetry and volatility into an institutionalized industry jointly reshaped by compliance, client structure, and asset forms.
