Seed CX, an institutional platform for trading digital assets, has added a Bitcoin spot trading market for its major clients with a “deep book of liquidity”, according to a press release (Jan 23).

CoinDesk noted that with this move, Seed CX has taken “its first big step” in bringing institutional investors into the crypto space. Seed CX co-founder and CEO Edward Woodford said that despite the sluggish market, both the number and type of customers signing up in the past months show an increased interest from beyond just crypto firms.

Seed CX will begin by offering a BTC/USD trading pair, with plans to add dollar pairs with Ether, Litecoin and BTC Cash by the month-end. It also plans to expand its USD trading pairs to include the Euro and Japanese Yen next month. Clients can access the market through a web API, a graphical user interface or the financial information exchange (FIX) protocol.

As part of its efforts to decrease the risks for clients in a depressed market, Seed CX intends to help its investors with margin trading, use larger tick and contract sizes, and require tighter quotes for clients. Clients in turn may also utilize non-traditional assets such as digital assets as collateral.

Seed CX is taking several measures to more strongly secure its clients’ holdings. All USD deposits made will be insured under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and stored in regulated banks. Crypto deposits will be stored in Seed CX’s segregated wallets, unlike many other exchanges which tend to store such deposits in only a single wallet.

The exchange maintains that it also does not trade against its clients, while at the same time barring its employees from trading crypto.