Crypto Market Makers Collectively Seek Transformation as Money Becomes Increasingly Difficult to Earn
Major crypto market makers like GSR are collectively pivoting as profitability declines in their traditional business. GSR has pursued an aggressive "Web3 investment bank" strategy through acquisitions and partnerships, including buying a US SEC-registered broker-dealer, acquiring token advisory firms, launching an ETF, and securing strategic investment from Standard Chartered's SC Ventures. This transformation aims to integrate fragmented services—token design, fundraising, listing, liquidity provision, and asset management—into a unified platform.
Other leading market makers, such as Keyrock, B2C2, Wintermute, and DWF Labs, are following a similar path: strengthening regulatory compliance, expanding into institutional OTC services, and diversifying into areas like asset management, tokenized assets, and complex financial products.
Key drivers for this shift include shrinking project budgets, increased competition for fewer viable tokens, and smarter, more demanding clients. Regulatory pressures (e.g., MiCA in the EU) and market volatility are raising the stakes, forcing firms to build systemic risk controls. The industry is evolving from a high-margin, volatility-driven trading model toward a more institutional, compliance-heavy, and service-integrated structure.
链捕手44 хв тому