Traditional Finance Veteran Joins Crypto Trading Firm B2C2

The former global chief operating officer of fixed income at Citadel Securities will now lead B2C2‘s US business as the cryptocurrency broker’s president. 

Nicola White, who was at Citadel for nearly four years, was responsible for defining and implementing a strategy to establish the company’s fixed income institutional market-making business.

Prior to Citadel, she spent about 13 years at Morgan Stanley, where she held roles such as global head of electronic rates and head of electronic fixed income. Among her most significant accomplishments include the electronification of interest rate trading for the bank and the launch of a Canadian fixed income business.

Now, her experience in developing electronic solutions for institutional markets will enhance B2C2’s capabilities as a full service liquidity provider, the firm announced Monday.

“The crypto space has been something that, I think like many people, I’ve been watching with a keen interest,” White told Blockworks, “and market structure is something that I’ve always been very interested in.”

B2C2 is a London-based trading firm in the institutional crypto markets. Acquired by Japanese financial group SBI Financial Services last year, B2C2 provides liquidity to banks, brokerages, exchanges and fund managers.

Rob Catalanello, the company’s co-CEO, said that the company anticipates increased regulation in the US as it builds its business to include more derivatives that would require reporting. White had experience both on the broker-dealer side and on derivatives reporting, he noted. 

“If all of a sudden there’s regulation that crypto is now a security, we will need to follow all the different protocols that are associated with securities trading,” Catalanello explained. “We will be ready so that there is no delay in serving our client base.”

White said that she will be especially focused on price transparency, liquidity and certainty of settlement, which she labeled as key areas of concern for many clients.

Though many exchanges were overwhelmed by the market volatility and trading volumes on May 19, the firm said in a news release, B2C2 had a record-breaking day during which it executed more than 1 million trades and settled more than $1 billion.

“B2C2 was the backbone of providing liquidity through that event, and so that to me speaks not only to the strength of the technology, but also everything from front to back – settlements, [algorithms], the technology,” White said. “I think it’s very important to advance the crypto markets by having liquidity providers that can provide liquidity through all market events.”

Catalanello said he believes over-the-counter trading in cash and derivatives will continue to increase, noting that the firm hires with that in mind. Most of the leaders at B2C2 have experience in traditional finance, he added, which allows it to provide for the crypto space customer service that clients might expect from a “tier 1 bank.” 

“By adding Nicola, we’re going to continue to improve,” Catalanello said, “…and make it easy for institutional clients to look at crypto as a much more secure asset class.”