BTSE Exchange Taps Into Crypto Demand by Increasing Request-for-Quote Limits

BTSE, a British Virgin Islands-based cryptocurrency exchange, has upped the limit for its over-the-counter request for quote (RFQ) due to April's increasing demand for bitcoin.

The limit, which has been changed from $100,000 to $1 million, represents a ten-fold increase resulting from growing investor demand in digital assets, the exchange says.

It comes at a time when bitcoin's continuous rally from its March 13 "Black Thursday" low of $3,850 saw prices reach as high as $9,463 on Thursday.

"After being extremely undervalued throughout the greater part of March, bitcoin has made a full recovery in just one and a half months," Jonathan Leong CEO and co-founder of BTSE told CoinDesk. "Approaching the halving, I see the outlook as very bullish."

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An RFQ is a trading system or tool used to overcome issues of price slippage. Put simply RFQ is an electronic real-time message sent to liquidity providers connecting interested buyers or sellers.

"We're hearing directly from our users that bitcoin and other alternative forms of finance are increasingly in demand. Users are demanding this limit increase," Leong added.

The quote is provided by a provider, in response to an RFQ by other market participants (buyers/sellers). It is similar to the way trading pits on a stock exchange floor operate, where traders yell across the pit, seeking a market.

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BTSE sought to raise $50 million in one of the first token offerings on the Liquid Network, the parallel system to bitcoin created by startup Blockstream.

After completing its private sale in February this year, BTSE offered 1 million BTSE tokens during their public token sale in March via the exchange. The tokens sold out within the first four hours, according to Leong.

UPDATE (April 30, 15:44 UTC): A previous version of this article said BTSE was based in Dubai. It moved to the British Virgin Islands earlier this year.