Institutional Crypto Trading Platform Elwood Technologies Expands Offerings

Elwood Technologies has added to its offerings to institutional clients with the introduction of a set of a risk management tools.

The London-based company is aiming to provide clients with tools that "uphold the standards set by traditional asset classes," CEO James Stickland said in an announcement on Tuesday.

The collapse of a number centralized platforms in recent months has highlighted the need for risk controls and keeping close tabs on collateral. Elwood's new offering includes live position and exposure tracking, scenario analysis and collateral monitoring – in other words, said the company, the type of services that will reassure institutional investors in the crypto space.

When Elwood early last year was talking to people about providing execution services, Stickland said he was “horrified” to hear about firms using basic spreadsheets in a live environment to manage multibillion-dollar portfolios.

“People told us they were happy with using Google Sheets," said Stickland in an interview with CoinDesk. "It's literally insane that people were going to use G-sheets to run these monstrous portfolios."

The expansion of its risk management services has also seen Elwood add 50 new employees to its team, which now numbers 165 across offices in the U.K., U.S., Jersey and Singapore.

Elwood Technologies is backed by billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard and has also attracted investment from Goldman Sachs (GS), Barclays Bank (BCS), Galaxy Digital Ventures and Digital Currency Group (CoinDesk’s parent company).

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