The agreement
Caladan, a global proprietary trading group and digital asset liquidity provider, and NextBlock, a South Korean institutional digital asset infrastructure provider, said they would work together to broaden access to global digital asset liquidity for institutional market participants in South Korea. The announcement was dated 9 November and issued from Singapore and Seoul. NextBlock is operated by Kane Company Inc.
Routing through NextRoute
NextBlock will connect to Caladan's liquidity through NextRoute, its own smart order routing engine. The companies said the arrangement combines Caladan's market-making and execution capabilities with NextBlock's local infrastructure, widening the liquidity network behind NextBlock's institutional offering.
South Korea's rule changes
The companies placed the collaboration in the context of South Korean moves to widen institutional participation in digital asset markets, which they described as among Asia's most active. The Financial Services Commission has set out a phased approach to expanding corporate participation in virtual asset trading, alongside continuing work on regulatory oversight and market safeguards. Caladan and NextBlock said the tie-up is meant to improve access to global liquidity and execution infrastructure for professional participants as that framework develops.
What the firms said
Julia Zhou, president and co-founder of Caladan, said South Korea was an important digital asset market in Asia and that its evolving regulatory framework created opportunities for institutional trading infrastructure. Chan Sim, NextBlock's chief executive, said institutional access depended on bringing liquidity, execution technology and local infrastructure together, and that the Caladan partnership widened the global liquidity available through NextRoute.