Caladan Joins the Crypto Structured Products Race, Offering Options for Institutional Investors

Digital asset trading group Caladan has announced the launch of an over-the-counter (OTC) options desk, offering structured crypto products specifically designed for institutional and accredited investors.

This announcement comes amidst a growing trend of established financial institutions entering the crypto derivatives market, with DBS Bank recently launching similar offerings in Singapore.

Founded in 2017, Caladan's decision to expand into structured products builds upon their existing venture capital and market-making activities. John Gu, CEO of Caladan Group, explained in a statement, “For years, we’ve supported crypto startups at their very earliest stages as a venture capital investor, and also at token listing with our market-making capabilities across CeFi and DeFi.”

“Now, we are expanding further across the token project lifecycle by providing treasury solutions for token foundations and key investors that will enable them to protect their investments,” Gu added.

Experienced Leadership for Options Trading

Caladan also announced the appointment of Remi Colinmaire, a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in options and volatility trading, to lead their new options trading desk from his base in Singapore.

He began his career as an options market-maker at BNP Paribas, and has previously been a managing director at Goldman Sachs and a portfolio manager at AlphaDyne Asset Management specialising in index volatility trading. 

Colinmaire highlighted the potential of the crypto options market, stating, "Despite being a nascent market, digital assets options are poised to grow tremendously from here as it is only natural that more institutions and sophisticated investors are looking for capital efficient financing solutions."

The new desk will offer derivative solutions on a wide range of tokens, exceeding 200, according to Caladan. These products will empower token foundations and institutional investors to generate yield and hedge risks associated with their crypto holdings.

"Token foundations and institutional investors often don’t want to sell their holdings as they believe in the project for the long run. Instead, we are seeing increased demand from the most savvy foundations and investors for solutions to be able to monetize their holdings to fund strategic business needs while also protecting their capital in this volatile environment," Will Leung, Caladan's head of business development, said.