Insider Insights May 2023 Issue

Why the Digital Asset Market Needs Liquidity

Liquidity is a necessary part of any financial market, and digital assets are no exception. Recent events, however, have caused an adverse effect on the availability of liquidity in the market; for example, the SEC has sued several asset exchanges and expanded the list of assets that it believes to be securities such as Binance USD (BUSD) and Cardano (ADA). Should these new regulatory actions take exchanges offline or force them to delist coins, this will further constrain available funds for trading. Here’s what will be needed to manage this new potential phase of the digital asset economy.

Why Liquidity is Necessary For The Market At Large

Perhaps the most singular reason why liquidity is good for digital assets is that it makes the market less manipulable; with a healthy ecosystem of buyers and sellers, it makes it more difficult for any one individual or group to control the market through large orders. Liquidity also aids price discovery, which means that prices are determined by natural supply and demand forces. This helps ensure that markets remain fair and efficient, allowing investors to make informed decisions based on accurate pricing information. The bottom line is that a more liquid market is a fairer market.

Liquidity also encourages participation in the digital asset market since traders can more easily enter and exit positions. One of the worst feelings as a trader is seeing a compelling opportunity, but not being able to act on it due to all of your assets already being tied up. Liquidity also helps reduce transaction costs, since traders can take advantage of more competitive pricing from multiple counterparties. This encourages greater participation and allows for deeper liquidity, which in turn is a virtuous circle that further reduces costs and increases market efficiency. Lowered transaction costs can also open up the digital asset market to a wider range of investors, allowing them to take part in the opportunities offered by the space with less risk. Finally, higher trading volumes due to increased liquidity can result in reduced volatility – which is good news for traders looking to mitigate their exposure to price swings.

Liquidity also makes digital assets more attractive to institutional investors, who are increasingly entering the market due to the potential for high returns. With liquid markets, institutional traders can trade large volumes without significantly impacting prices, allowing them to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digital assets. Furthermore, improved liquidity reduces risk as there is less chance of a single exchange experiencing a sudden surge in demand that cannot be met. This encourages greater confidence in the asset class as a whole and helps to spur further growth.

Finally, liquidity helps reduce volatility in the market — something that anyone who has been in the market for any length of time can appreciate. This reduces the risk of wide swings in price, which can be especially dangerous for buyers and sellers with large positions. By providing a larger pool of buyers and sellers, liquidity can help to even out temporary price spikes and dips. With lower volatility and fewer risks for traders, this allows the digital asset market as a whole to become more compelling, especially to new entrants.

How a Skilled Trader Takes Advantage of Liquidity

Skilled traders can take full advantage of increased liquidity in the digital asset market to increase their profits. By having access to a larger pool of buyers and sellers, traders can more easily enter and exit positions at competitive prices. This enables them to take advantage of short-term opportunities that may arise without being exposed to potential risks or waiting for others to complete their own trades. Moreover, traders can trust that their orders will be filled promptly and accurately, allowing them to quickly move in and out of the market as they see fit. Although centralized exchanges (CEXs) can fulfill this demand to a degree, and are certainly aided by higher liquidity in the market in general, there are other options to get access to funds quickly and easily that do not really have an analog in traditional finance, such as liquidity pools.

A liquidity pool in digital asset trading is essentially a collection of assets, such as cryptocurrencies, that are available for buying or selling in the market, often tied to a smart contract. These pools are at the heart of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and are composed of buyers and sellers who are looking to trade digital assets in order to take advantage of potential opportunities. Individuals are incentivized to stake their assets in the pool, locking them up in the pool for a certain length of time and being paid interest along with a fee for early withdrawal (not unlike a certificate of deposit in traditional finance.) By using liquidity pools, traders can create an order book for their asset, which allows buyers and sellers to interact with each other in real time. This provides a greater depth of liquidity compared to a single exchange. If the trader knows that they can use that capital to generate a larger return than the interest and fees levied by the pool, then they create value for themselves, their organization, and their clients.

Conclusion

Liquidity is extremely important for the digital asset market at large. It helps to ensure fair and efficient pricing, encourages participation by reducing transaction costs, creates opportunities for institutional investors to enter the market with confidence, and reduces volatility. As the market enters a potential period of constrained liquidity, it’s more important than ever for market makers such as Varys Capital to bring their services to bear for the health of the ecosystem.

If you have questions about our fund or would like to be sent investor documents, you can contact our investor relations department at [email protected].

Regards,

Darius Askaripour
Managing Partner

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