The big guns of finance have been eyeing the crypto market for a while now, and entrepreneurs are taking notice of this interest. In 2016, negative perceptions of the hedge fund industry due to weak performance and high fees caused a massive $112 bln to be pulled from the industry and turned the attention of hedge fund managers to the crypto-boom of 2017.

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The volatility in the 3 trillion-dollar hedge fund industry has created a movement to embrace cryptocurrencies. A survey of hedge fund managers in September 2017 by BarclayHedge showed that 24 percent of hedge funds interviewed “responded that they either currently invest or plan to invest [in cryptocurrencies] within the next six months.”

The problem for institutional investors

The multi-trillion dollar hedge fund industry is accustomed to performing analysis on investments with tools that cannot be applied to cryptocurrency assets. To date, this industry has been unable to buy, trade, or invest in cryptocurrency. Not only has there been a lack of institutional-grade tools to complete transactions, there were also no tools with the specific compliance capabilities required.

As a result, most hedge funds have been forced to watch the rise in cryptocurrency prices with their hands tied by investment mandates and security issues.

Blockchain Terminal will allow institutional cryptocurrency investing

Blockchain Terminal (BCT) is bridging the gap between institutional investors and cryptocurrency markets. At its foundation is an application called ComplianceGuard, a deep compliance framework that satisfies the strictest hedge fund requirements and places institutional investors in a secured and monitored environment.

Bob Bonomo is president of the Blockchain Terminal and former CIO of two of the largest asset management firms in the United States. Mr. Bonomo has spent more than 30 years on Wall Street as a developer, building global systems and teams.

“We aim to bridge the traditional asset management industry with the bourgeoning cryptocurrency community,” says Mr. Bonomo. “Our consumers are institutional traders – either existing asset managers – or crypto hedge fund managers who need better controls and order trails,” he adds. “We are trying to bring stability, accountability and transparency to this new and exciting ecosystem and digital currency community.”

How does the Blockchain Terminal work?

• The Terminal: The hardware combines market data from more than 60 cryptocurrency exchanges with information about upcoming initial coin offerings (ICOs), news, and social media, to create a complete picture of the crypto world, allowing investors access to thousands of cryptocurrencies in a compliance-vetted and identity-verified environment.  
• Consolidated order book: The Blockchain Terminal offers a consolidated order book, showing the price and state of the market across thousands of cryptocurrencies in multiple exchanges, allowing easy identification of the spread between buyer and seller prices.
• Consolidated wallet: BCT’s consolidated wallet allows a single account to trade on multiple exchanges. This means that you only need to verify your identity once with Blockchain Terminal to access to more than 60 available exchanges.
• ComplianceGuard: The proprietary ComplianceGuard Technology ensures that institutional investors can confidently participate in cryptocurrency purchases. ComplianceGuard creates a strict framework, placing institutional investors in a secured and monitored environment with alerts, safeguards, and an audit system that allows you to manage and mediate all interactions on the terminal.
• Open source ecosystem: The BCT ecosystem sits within an open source app store, enabling the best third-party app developers to create new tools for the Terminal.
• Utility token: The BCT ecosystem runs on a utility token. The token is used to register, transact, and use applications within the platform. All functions on the terminal are made exclusively with the BCT Token.

A live and working product

Blockchain Terminal has already deployed a number of alpha terminals and is currently building 200 beta terminals in New York, rolling them out as of last month to industry leaders around the world.

“We’re not a white paper, we’re a real product, here and now,” says Mr. Bonomo. “We believe a convergence will occur over the next few years, whereby the new digital currency asset class will be seamlessly incorporated into traditional asset management processes, systems, and portfolios.”

By enabling real-time compliance enforcement and ad-hoc audits, BCT will facilitate the relationships between financial asset managers, auditors and regulators, and will give hedge funds and other institutional investors the tools they need to enter the world of cryptocurrencies.

Ramping up for launch

The ecosystem that Blockchain Terminal is building will create momentum and solutions that will allow the multi-trillion dollar hedge fund industry to finally buy, trade, and invest in cryptocurrency. The Blockchain Terminal token sale is available now until April 30, 2018.