TP ICAP, a long-established name in traditional finance, launched a digital asset business in 2019. Duncan Trenholme, global co-head of digital assets at TP ICAP, discussed increasing institutional interest on the Open Order Podcast, a Traders Magazine production, in October.

As a traditional finance firm, TP ICAP provides institutional customers with access to global financial, energy and commodities products and helps them hedge their associate positions and manage risks. Trenholme said that in 2018 the firm got early demand from clients who wanted to use crypto in their business. As TP ICAP explored both the blockchain technology, and the assets on top of the technology, Trenholme said the firm believed they were going to be powerful across financial markets. 

“It’s about transferring any form of value natively over the internet in an efficient and automated fashion,” he added. “We’re excited to see the technology start to improve some of the traditional asset classes that we are involved in as well.”

Trenholme said most interest has been in FX moving onchain and the firm is starting to see “really interesting” opportunities around cross-border payments, and remittances. He added: “FX is starting to be disintermediated by this technology.”

The digital assets business has made progress. On 10 October 2025 TP ICAP said in a statement that Fusion Digital Assets, the group’s crypto asset exchange registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority, said in a statement  it has surpassed $1nn in notional traded volume across its spot bitcoin and ether order books in September. 

Simon Forster, global co-head of digital assets at TP ICAP, said in a statement: Forster said in the statement: “The digital asset landscape is at a critical inflection point, evolving from a niche asset class into a core component of the global financial ecosystem. This transition driven by more sophisticated trading participants requires institutional-grade infrastructure built on the foundations of liquidity, transparency, and trust.”

Trenholme continued that when the digital assets business launched, it initially attracted firms with a bigger risk appetites, such as non-bank market makers and hedge funds that were exploring the asset class. However, more typically conservative clients have also come into the asset class. 

He explained that tokenization of traditional asset classes has also become better understood, and public blockchains have become understood as a piece of infrastructure on which to build different products, especially stablecoins. 

On the Open Order Podcast,Trenholme discusses the impact of the U.S. passing the GENIUS Act, a federal framework for stablecoins, and the potential use of stablecoins as collateral. In addition, he discusses the work that needs to be done to stitch digital assets into the traditional finance system including the development of prime brokers and clearing firms.

“I think we’re now at a stage where over the next 18 months to two years that will happen, and then it will be part and parcel of financial markets as a whole,” he said.

Listen to the whole podcast here on the Traders website. You can also find the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.