New York-based cryptocurrency brokerage and trading platform Tagomi allows its users to lend or borrow Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) to facilitate long or short trades.
Bloomberg Quint reported on Sept. 12 that the exchange aims to make shorting easier by offering immediate access to multiple counterparties from a single platform.
The state of shoring in crypto
Per the report, to short crypto assets, traders currently have to “call a host of brokers and trading desks to find the best rates for borrowing and risk the market moving against them during the time it takes to put on a trade.” Tagomi’s chief operating officer Kevin Johnson commented on the difficulty of applying such strategies to crypto:
“In other asset classes this would be done with one click, but in crypto it’s very long and tedious to try and put a short on. ”
Shorting: part of the puzzle
Dennis Chou, director of trading at Pantera Capital, noted that the ability to short is important to traders. He noted that it is not only useful to those wanting to bet against crypto, but also to those looking to apply quantitative strategies, relative-value trades and hedging. He commented:
“The crypto space is volatile, so if you can’t short, you’re missing part of the puzzle.”
As Cointelegraph reported at the end of March, the New York State Department of Financial Services has granted a BitLicense to Tagomi.
