Digest | July 2026

June turned into Finery Markets' strongest month on record — more than $5B in client volume, $2.2B above the previous all-time high set only two months earlier. The number matters less than what sits behind it: as much of the market navigated a soft first half, OTC was the only crypto segment to keep growing, carrying more of the stablecoin operations that payment providers, brokers, and desks now run day to day.

This edition covers the record month, a new firm-liquidity partnership with GSR, two infrastructure upgrades built for treasury and back-office control, and a new guide to the mechanics of stablecoin FX.

A record June: $5B in client volume

June set a new all-time high, with clients trading more than $5B across OTC spot digital asset markets — surpassing April's previous record by $2.2B.

The growth came from payment providers, crypto OTC desks, and brokers: segments where stablecoins are increasingly part of everyday operations, not just trading. And it came against the grain of the wider market. While crypto navigated softer volumes through H1 2026, OTC continued to expand as institutions prioritized execution quality, settlement certainty, and capital efficiency.

"Driven by expanding stablecoin use cases across both payments and trading, this acceleration highlights how our OTC infrastructure is uniquely positioned to streamline stablecoin operations for crypto businesses. OTC markets stood out as the sole crypto segment to sustain growth in H1 '26, while DEX and CEX volumes remained in the red"

— Konstantin Shulga, CEO and co-founder of Finery Markets.

Stablecoins 2035: Our new special report

Stablecoins hit an all-time high of 81% of institutional OTC trades in H1 2026, with volumes up 94% YoY. We took that data and asked where it leads by 2035 — will banking rails get rewired, will "stablecoin" even remain a word, and what happens when AI agents start moving money.

Ten firms across trading, custody, payments, and data weighed in: Flow Traders, GSR, Keyrock, Dune, Chainberg, Fiat Republic, Fipto, Mercuryo, StraitsX, and Hercle.

Download now

GSR joins the network with firm liquidity

Finery Markets has partnered with GSR, one of the largest crypto market makers, to expand the firm liquidity available to institutions on the network. The integration is already live, with the first trade completed.

GSR's liquidity is available exclusively via firm quotes, enabling a zero-slippage execution environment and giving clients greater certainty on large transactions. Through the partnership, GSR will provide liquidity to payment providers, OTC desks, brokers, and other participants among the 150+ firms connected to Finery Markets.

The timing tracks a broader shift in institutional flow. According to Finery Markets' Q1 report, OTC continued to outpace other venues, with OTC volume growth of 43% YoY against CEX (-45%) and DEX (+39%).

Advanced sub-account architecture for treasury and back-office control

We have upgraded our sub-account infrastructure, enabling PSPs, OTC desks, and brokers to deploy accounts dynamically without individual user logins. This unlocks custom liquidity provider (LP) mapping and flexible markup profiles, delivering efficiencies across four core setups:

Corporate treasury: Allocate internal sub-accounts to individual subsidiaries to streamline group-wide risk and position management at the parent level.
Multi-trader desks: Assign isolated sub-account APIs per trader or strategy while automatically consolidating all risk and exposure under a single Master Account.
SOR & LP optimization: Isolate market data feeds per LP within a single master login, allowing desks to seamlessly factor in CEX fees using flexible markups.
FM White Label integration: Configure sub-accounts to run entirely unauthenticated, natively via our system, or integrated directly with any client-side identity management system based on preference.

Liquidity network expansion: XTX Markets via LMAX

We are pleased to announce the onboarding of XTX Markets to our Quote Streams module, accessible via an optimized LMAX infrastructure connector. Settlement for XTX Markets flows will be processed and orchestrated via Ripple Prime.

This deployment expands our aggregated institutional liquidity network, which natively features Tier-1 providers and CEX venues including B2C2, Wintermute, Sage, Binance, and Kraken.

Fintech Unplugged: the conversations that happen off the floor

iFX EXPO Cyprus 2026 lived up to expectations — but the best networking often happens away from the conference floor. During the week, Finery Markets, Utila, and Fiat Republic hosted a new edition of Fintech Unplugged: an evening for institutional digital asset leaders, fintech builders, partners, and friends of the industry, with Stablecoin Insider as media partner.

The idea was simple — create a setting where people could step away from the busy agenda and have the conversations that usually happen between panels, meetings, and after-hours introductions. Thank you to everyone who joined us.

Watch our recap

A new guide to stablecoin FX

Stablecoins have quietly become the settlement layer for institutional crypto — their share of institutional OTC volume rose from 23% in 2023 to 78% in 2025. But moving a stablecoin between wallets was never the hard part. The hard part is stablecoin FX: pricing the conversion, sourcing liquidity across corridors, settling on-chain, staying compliant, and reconciling the whole flow.

Our new guide breaks down what stablecoin FX actually is — how a "fiat → stablecoin → fiat" sandwich settles, where it creates real value across payments, treasury, and OTC workflows, and the infrastructure required to run it at institutional scale. It also looks at where the market is heading, including the rise of euro-denominated liquidity as EURC posts +41x YoY growth and MiCA reshapes which stablecoins institutions can use.

Read the guide