Bitcoin OTC: trading size with a desk, not an order book

Bitcoin OTC is how a trade of US$250,000 or more is done: one desk quotes one price for the whole amount and settles with you bilaterally, rather than your order walking a public exchange order book. It is not #bitcoin-otc, the peer-to-peer IRC marketplace. Crypto Loans HQ introduces enquiries to desks; it is not a desk.

Key takeaways

• The sequence is fixed. A desk onboards you before it quotes; you state the side, asset, amount and settlement currency; the price stands only for the window the desk sets; an accepted trade is confirmed in writing.
• The cost usually sits inside the price. Kraken's OTC desk states that it charges no service fee and quotes an “all-inclusive” price, so the spread against a reference index is what you pay.
• Settlement runs on the desk's terms and the bank's hours. Cumberland settles post-trade, often in under 24 hours; Kraken requires settlement within 24 hours. Fedwire is closed at weekends.
• Onboarding comes before the first quote. Expect identity, ownership and source-of-funds checks, and a bank account in the same name as the trading account.
• Impersonation is the live fraud risk. California's financial regulator reports that imposter websites are among the most common scams in its tracker. Confirm every wallet address and wire instruction through a second channel.

How a bitcoin OTC trade works

On an exchange, a market order fills against the orders resting in a public book. A buy order larger than the quantity offered at the lowest price keeps filling at higher prices until it is complete, and each fill appears in the exchange's public trade record. On a large order, that price movement—market impact—is a cost you carry yourself.

Desks take that impact off the order. Coinbase Prime's developer documentation describes its RFQ order as a way to “request quotes from liquidity providers before executing a trade.” A bitcoin OTC trade replaces the order book with a conversation, whether by chat, phone, portal or API, that ends in one agreed price. Working an order over time instead is covered in large bitcoin purchases.

The sequence is fixed. A desk onboards you before it quotes at all. You then state the side, asset, amount and settlement currency, and the price it returns stands only for the window it sets. You accept it or let it lapse; an accepted trade is confirmed in writing, with the price, amount and settlement instructions. Settlement and custody follow, on the desk's terms.

Principal or agent: who is on the other side of your trade

A desk works in one of two capacities, and it matters which. As principal, the desk sells to you or buys from you out of its own inventory, carries the price risk once the trade is done, and earns its margin inside the price. As agent, it executes your order against other venues and charges a fee for doing so.

US securities rules draw the same line for broker-dealers: a firm selling from its own inventory is paid through a markup, while an agent charges a commission (SEC, Investor.gov glossary). Crypto desks are not necessarily broker-dealers, so treat that as an analogy. Put the question to any desk directly: are you my counterparty or my agent, and how are you paid?

Five desks answer that question, in their own published words, like this.

Settlement: who moves first, and when

Every trade has two legs, the bitcoin and the money. Unless something ties them together, one side sends first and is owed until the second leg lands. Desks handle that in one of two ways.

Pre-funding. You deposit the dollars (to buy) or the bitcoin (to sell) before you trade. The desk takes no credit risk on you; you carry the risk on the desk while your balance sits there.

Post-trade settlement on credit. Cumberland states that “All trades with Cumberland are settled post-trade,” often in less than 24 hours, once you are approved as a counterparty, and nets API trades in a 24-hour roll-up. Gemini describes intraday delayed net settlement on its eOTC platform as a way to avoid “pre-funding requirements.” Kraken offers eligible clients the option to trade now and settle later, within 24 hours.

Some desks and custodians describe delivery versus payment, meaning each leg is released only against the other. If a desk offers it, ask how it works in practice and get the answer in writing.

The dollar leg runs on bank rails that close. The Fedwire Funds Service business day runs from 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time the preceding day to 7:00 p.m., customer transfers cut off at 6:45 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays are holidays; the Federal Reserve plans to add Sunday operation in 2028 or 2029. Bitcoin moves at any hour, so a trade agreed on a Friday evening can leave one leg waiting until Monday.

Custody is separate from execution. Kraken states that its OTC desk “does not custody assets on behalf of trading counterparties.” Decide where the bitcoin will sit before you trade; custody after a large bitcoin purchase sets out the options.

What a desk asks for at onboarding

Desks onboard before they quote, and onboarding for size is document-heavy. Expect four sets of questions.

• Identity and ownership. Who you are and where you live; for a company, fund or trust, who owns and controls it. FinCEN's customer due diligence rule requires covered financial institutions to identify each individual who owns 25% or more of a legal-entity customer, plus one who controls it. Whether it binds a particular crypto desk depends on that desk's status, but desks commonly ask the same questions.
• Source of funds and source of wealth. Where the money for this trade comes from, and how the wealth behind it was built. UK regulations require firms to establish both for politically exposed persons, and firms ask more widely on a risk basis.
• Bank and wallet details. Kraken states that the name on your bank account has to match the name on your Kraken account, so plan to settle through an account in the trading entity's own name.
• Eligibility. Some desks serve institutions only. B2C2 states that it “does not transact with or provide any service to any retail investor or consumer.” Kraken makes its bitcoin OTC service subject to AML and KYC requirements and a verified Pro-level account.

Transfers carry information by rule. In the US, a bank must pass the sender's and recipient's details with any funds transfer of US$3,000 or more (31 CFR 1010.410(f)). UK cryptoasset businesses have had to collect, verify and share transfer information since 1 September 2023. In the EU, since 30 December 2024, a provider handling a transfer of more than EUR 1,000 to or from a self-hosted address should verify that the address belongs to its client.

Crypto Loans HQ's enquiry form asks for none of these documents; the desk collects them directly from you, as how it works describes.

What size means to a desk

A desk that quotes one price for the whole amount takes on the job of absorbing it, and the quote carries that: index prices, liquidity, volatility and the desk's own position all weigh on it.

Published minimums are a floor, not a price list. Kraken publishes two figures: its OTC desk support article (updated 10 December 2025) gives a minimum order of US$50,000 equivalent, with exceptions case by case, while its bitcoin OTC page gives US$100,000. River's private-client service invites purchases of US$100,000 or more. Cumberland, Galaxy, FalconX and B2C2 publish no minimum on the pages we read. The table of minimums desks publish has the detail and the dates.

Crypto Loans HQ works with crypto OTC enquiries from US$250,000. The criteria are on who we work with.

Risk

Risks in a bitcoin OTC trade

• Counterparty risk. With a principal desk, the desk is the other side of your trade. If you pre-fund or deliver first and the desk fails before it pays, you are left as its creditor. Balances left with a desk or exchange after the trade carry the same exposure.
• Settlement risk. Bitcoin sent to a wrong or substituted address cannot be pulled back, and the FTC warns that cryptocurrency payments typically cannot be reversed. Wire cutoffs and weekends can leave one leg waiting. Agree in writing who sends first, by when, and to which address or account, before you accept a quote.
• Scams impersonating desks. California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation says in its Crypto Scam Tracker that “Imposter websites are one of the most common reported scams” (accessed September 2026). Fake desks use lookalike domains and messaging apps. In its business email compromise advisory the FBI's IC3 tells recipients to use “secondary channels and/or two-factor authentication to verify requests for changes in account information” (PSA I-091124-PSA, 11 September 2024) — the same discipline applies to a desk's settlement instructions, so confirm every address and wire instruction on a number you already hold.
• Recovery scams after a loss. The CFTC calls fraud-recovery scams “a form of advance-fee fraud.” The IC3 warns that it does not recover funds through Facebook, Telegram or similar platforms, and tells victims to be wary of recovery services, especially those charging an up-front fee.
• Registration. Check the firm on its regulator's register before onboarding: the FCA Register in the UK and, for US commodity activity, the CFTC's RED List of foreign entities that appear to need registration but are not registered.

The guide to telling a desk from an impersonator covers the warning signs in more detail.

Where Crypto Loans HQ fits

Crypto Loans HQ is an introduction service. We take your enquiry, check it against the criteria desks publish and, where one may fit, arrange an introduction. The desk onboards you, quotes and settles directly with you. We do not trade, hold assets or handle settlement.

Desks may pay us for introductions; how we are paid sets out the model. The two bitcoin OTC pages below cover each side of a trade in more depth.

• Borrow against bitcoin instead of selling
• Custody and rehypothecation
• Glossary

Primary sources

• Cumberland: Frequently asked questions (accessed September 2026)
• Coinbase Global, Inc.: Form 10-K for the fiscal year 2025 (filed 12 February 2026)
• Galaxy Digital Inc.: Form 10-K for the fiscal year 2025 (filed 26 February 2026)
• Coinbase Prime developer documentation: order types (accessed September 2026)
• Kraken: Introducing the Kraken OTC desk (updated 10 December 2025)
• Kraken: Bitcoin OTC trading (accessed September 2026)
• Gemini: Institutional OTC (eOTC) desk page (accessed September 2026)
• B2C2: home page statement on retail clients (accessed September 2026)
• River: Private Client (accessed September 2026)
• SEC, Investor.gov: Markups
• Federal Reserve Financial Services: Fedwire Funds Service operating hours and expansion of operating days
• 31 CFR 1010.230: beneficial ownership requirements for legal entity customers
• 31 CFR 1010.410: records to be made and retained by financial institutions
• Money Laundering Regulations 2017, regulation 35 (politically exposed persons)
• FCA: expectations for UK cryptoasset businesses complying with the Travel Rule (17 August 2023)
• Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets
• California DFPI: Crypto Scam Tracker
• FBI IC3: Business Email Compromise, PSA I-091124-PSA (11 September 2024)
• FBI IC3: Scammers impersonating the IC3, PSA I-072026-PSA (20 July 2026)
• FBI IC3: Cryptocurrency
• CFTC: Watch for follow-on frauds (30 July 2024) and the RED List
• FTC: What to know about cryptocurrency and scams

Bitcoin OTC: questions

What is the difference between bitcoin OTC and #bitcoin-otc?

Bitcoin OTC usually means trading with an OTC desk: a firm that quotes you a price for a set amount and settles the trade with you. #bitcoin-otc is a peer-to-peer marketplace on the Libera Chat IRC network. It describes itself as an aggregator of supply and demand and says trades happen directly between counterparties without its participation, so no desk stands behind the trade.

What size does a desk want before it onboards you?

Desks set eligibility rather than a published price of entry, and several institutional desks publish no minimum at all. B2C2 states that it does not transact with or provide any service to any retail investor or consumer, and Kraken makes its bitcoin OTC service subject to AML and KYC requirements and a verified Pro-level account. Crypto Loans HQ works with crypto OTC enquiries from US$250,000, and each desk decides on its own criteria whether it will quote.

Does Crypto Loans HQ trade bitcoin?

No. Crypto Loans HQ is an introduction service, not an OTC desk, exchange or custodian. It introduces qualified enquiries to third-party desks, and never asks you to send bitcoin or money to it.