Crypto Trading
Actively buying and selling crypto assets on exchanges, holding positions for days or weeks rather than minutes or years.
- Typical holding period
- 3 days to 3 months
- Assets traded
- BTC, ETH, ETC and other large-cap assets
- Custody
- [PLACEHOLDER: name your custodian and describe the wallet structure]
- Minimum engagement
- [PLACEHOLDER: minimum ticket size]
A discretionary book in large-capitalisation crypto assets, traded on regulated exchanges with published order books. The mandate is deliberately narrow: liquid assets only, no illiquid tokens, no lending of client assets to third parties.
Liquidity sets the universe
An asset is only eligible if the desk can exit a full position inside a single trading day without materially moving the price. That rule excludes most of the market by design. It is the single most effective protection against the failure mode that harms crypto investors most often, which is holding something that cannot be sold when it matters.
Position sizes are capped before conviction is considered
No single asset exceeds a fixed share of the book regardless of how strong the case for it appears. Concentration is the risk that ends portfolios, and conviction is exactly the feeling that produces it.
Client assets are segregated and never lent
Assets are not rehypothecated, not lent to counterparties for yield, and not used as collateral for the firm's own positions. Several of the largest losses in the sector's history came from firms doing precisely those things with customer assets. [PLACEHOLDER: describe your actual custody arrangement, cold-storage policy and any proof-of-reserves practice.]
What can go wrong
These are the specific ways this desk loses money. They are listed here rather than in a footnote because you should read them before deciding, not after.
- Crypto assets are not regulated in India. There is no regulatory recovery mechanism, deposit insurance or investor protection fund available to you if an exchange, custodian or counterparty fails.
- Prices are volatile enough that a drawdown of more than half the position value is a normal event, not a tail event.
- In India, gains on virtual digital assets are taxed at 30% plus applicable surcharge and cess, losses cannot be set off against other income or carried forward, and 1% TDS applies to transfers under Section 194S.
- Exchange, custodian, smart contract and network-level failures can each cause total loss of the assets held.
- The regulatory treatment of crypto in India may change, potentially at short notice and in ways that restrict your ability to trade or withdraw.