Circle Doubles Minimum Bitcoin Trade To $500K As CEO Says Volumes Will Rise

The over-the-counter trading platform of Goldman Sachs-backed financial services startup Circle doubled its minimum Bitcoin trade amount to $500,000 amid what it calls a "Robust market", Business Insider reports Monday, April 23.

In comments to Business Insider, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said the move preempts a U-turn in crypto trading markets, which saw volumes decline in Q1 this year as Bitcoin and altcoin asset prices fell.

"The minimum ticket size has moved up to $500,000 with an average of $1 million," he told the publication, noting the company's OTC platform Circle Trade routinely handles transactions over $100 mln, adding "[t]hat watermark will continue to rise.

Circle has made a conspicuous return to the cryptocurrency industry this year, most directly in its acquisition of major crypto exchange Poloniex in February.

Going forward, proponents of OTC trading see advantages in offering large-scale investors a method to interact with Bitcoin 'wholesale,' an option which traditional exchanges with less liquidity cannot match.

"If I have $5 million, I can't do that trade on GDAX," an unnamed industry source added to Business Insider.

Last week, Cointelegraph reported on rumors Brazil's biggest investment firm was preparing to launch an OTC exchange of its own.

Hitting $9,000 on April 21 and fluctuating around that mark since, Bitcoin continues to spark fresh optimism about prices hitting new all-time highs in the near future, with recent predictions from industry insiders running as high as $250,000 per coin.