BGC Partners (BGCP), a leading global brokerage and financial technology company, announced that it would launch a crypto exchange that could compete with larger companies.
BGC specializes in the brokerage of a broad range of products, including fixed income (rates and credit), foreign exchange, equities, energy and commodities, shipping, Insurance, and futures. BGC also provides various services, including trade execution, brokerage, clearing, trade compression, post-trade, information, and other back-office services to a broad range of financial and non-financial institutions.
Through brands including Fenics, BGC Trader, Capital, Lucera, and Fenics Market Data, offers financial technology solutions, market data, and analytics related to numerous financial instruments and markets. BGC, BGC Trader, GFI, Fenics, Fenics Market Data, Capital, and Lucera are trademarks/service marks and registered trademarks/service marks of BGC Partners, Inc., and its affiliates.
BGC’s customers include many of the world’s largest banks, broker-dealers, investment banks, trading firms, hedge funds, governments, corporations, and investment firms. BGC’s Class A common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the “BGCP.” BGC Partners is led by the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick.
CEO Howard Lutnick said on Wednesday during Piper Sandler’s Global Exchange & Brokerage Conference in New York that BGCP plans to build a cryptocurrency exchange and launch it by the end of this year or the first quarter of 2023. This initiative is a very surprising move and the latest in the traditional Wall Street firm in the crypto space.
Although BGC, as a leading global brokerage and financial technology company, already has cryptocurrency initiatives. It has a comprehensive multichannel digital asset platform powered by multi-billion dollar infrastructure and state-of-the-art Fenics Trading technology. Fenics Trading technology delivers a marketplace for FX trading where liquidity is actionable and real. It leverages BGC’s global capital market ecosystem to develop highly valuable market data products.
BGC cryptocurrency initiatives include Lucera- an initiative Connected to 26 of the deepest cryptocurrency liquidity pools with a strong pipeline of additional clients, venues, and digital custodians to be added throughout 2022; Kace– Which supports price making & distribution, lifecycle management, risk and revaluation reporting, and STP for crypto options; Fenics Execution– One of the first futures exchanges with state-of-the-art protocols permitted to list crypto derivatives: CFTC Regulated DCM & DCO; and Global Brokerage– an initiative uniquely positioned to capitalize on the growing and significant crypto opportunities.
Lutnick said he’s bullish on BGC adding a crypto offering, and the company can compete with global crypto exchanges given the technology and speed of BGC’s platforms. He said he’s used to regulation. “So what,” Lutnick said regarding U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler planning to regulate the crypto sector.
BGC First Quarter 2022 Revenue Report
BGC generated total revenue of $506.5 million during the first quarter of 2022, down 1.7 percent versus last year, excluding Insurance. Total revenue would have been over $10 million higher or up 0.3 percent over last year, but for strengthening the U.S. dollar.
First-quarter revenue performance across the business was as follows:
▪ Total revenue was $506.5 million, down 1.7 percent, excluding Insurance.
▪ Voice / Hybrid, including other revenue, was $381.2 million, a decrease of 6.5 percent, excluding Insurance, due to the continued conversion of Voice / Hybrid to Fenics Markets revenue.
▪ Fenics reported record first-quarter revenue of $125.3 million, up 16.4 percent, with a pre-tax Adjusted Earnings margin of 34.2 percent across its Fenics Markets business, an improvement of 336 basis points.
