Bitcoin OTC Brokers – Buying Large Amounts of Bitcoin

By: Alexander Reed | Last updated: 2/21/24

The standard methods used by most people for buying Bitcoin aren’t always suitable for high volume purchases, due to high transaction fees and a limited supply on Bitcoin exchanges.

Moreover, some investors wish to stay under the radar and not drastically affect Bitcoin’s price by placing large ‘Buy’ orders. This guide will review the top Bitcoin OTC brokers and cover the most cost-effective ways to buy Bitcoins in large amounts (exceeding $100,000).

Buying Large Amounts of Bitcoin Summary

Buying large amounts of Bitcoin requires a different approach than the “normal” day-to-day exchange. There are specific Bitcoin over-the-counter (OTC) brokers that deal with clients looking to place large orders, so you’ll be able to get the best price.

Here are the top OTC brokers today:

That’s how you buy large amounts of Bitcoin in a nutshell. If you want a more detailed review about the different Bitcoin OTC brokers, keep on reading. Here’s what I’ll cover:

1. Bitcoin OTC Brokers vs. Trading Platforms
2. Best Bitcoin OTC Brokers
   • ItBit
   • Genesis
   • Cumberland Mining
   • FalconX
   • Satstreet
   • CoinJar
   • Kraken
   • Binance
   • Bitfinex
   • HitBTC
   • Athena Investor Services
   • SFOX
3. Traditional Exchanges Suited for Large Purchases
   • Coinbase
   • Bitstamp
4. Conclusion

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1. Bitcoin OTC  Brokers vs. Trading Platforms

The two main options you have for buying large amounts of Bitcoin are OTC brokers (OTC = over-the-counter) or traditional Bitcoin trading platforms. OTC brokers refer to companies or individuals willing to sell you Bitcoin directly, as opposed to an automated trading platform.

Bitcoin OTC broker Benefits

High liquidity – OTC brokers specialize in supplying high volumes of Bitcoin to large buyers such as institutional investors. This means that most of the time you will be able to get your order fulfilled in full, faster than on a traditional exchange.

Fixed price – When you buy large amounts of Bitcoin on a public automated exchange, you will probably see the price rise as your order gets executed.

This is due to the fact that once you finish buying from the “cheap” sellers, you gradually move to the “expensive” sellers. This means you don’t have a fixed price for your purchase. When you use an OTC exchange, you can negotiate a fixed price for the entire order (e.g. “Bitstamp rate + 1%”).

Bitcoin OTC broker Disadvantages

Less transparency – While on a traditional trading platform the order book is transparent for everyone to see, when buying Bitcoin OTC you don’t always know exactly who you’re dealing with or the volume that they have to trade. You are basing your information solely on what you get from the seller.

Less regulation – Buying OTC means that there is less regulation involved, since many of the OTC sellers aren’t listed as money transmitters. Hence, the risk with these transactions increases.

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2. Known Bitcoin OTC Brokers

Having listed the various pros and cons of using OTC brokers, let’s go over some of the more popular brokers in the Bitcoin economy. Most of these services require you to apply and pass a specific screening and verification process.

ItBit

ItBit is a well known US-based Bitcoin exchange, founded in 2012 by Paxos. It is a regulated exchange in the US that supplies Bitcoin and other crypto trading services for small and institutional investors.

The platform also offers a personalized service for orders over $100K, which has low fees and quick settlement. Itbit states that its OTC market has very competitive pricing, which makes it very attractive considering it’s also a regulated exchange.

Genesis

Genesis is an institutional trading firm offering two-sided liquidity for digital currency, including Bitcoin and Ether. Since September 2013, Genesis has grown to process billions of dollars worth of crypto trades, loans and transactions on a monthly basis.

The company has a minimum trade size of $250K and their services are only available to institutions and individuals with assets worth at least $10 million. Unlike some other OTC exchanges, Genesis is regulated by FINRA and the SEC. They were also granted a Bitlicense in the state of New York back in 2018.

Cumberland Mining

Cumberland Mining is a specialized crypto asset trading company that is part of DRW – dealing with cryptocurrencies since 2014. Their global head of trading, Bobby Cho, was formerly a director for ItBit and Vice President of Second Market.

Cumberland Mining offers competitive pricing for institutional size Bitcoin transactions. They also supply liquidity to some of the major traditional Bitcoin exchanges.

The company trades BTC, ETH, and a number of other crypto assets. They facilitate crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat transactions, with trades often settled in less than 24 hours.

While there’s not much info on the company’s website, Coindesk has researched it in the past and they have also partnered with Tradeblock. 

FalconX

FalconX is a San Francisco based OTC trading desk that offers its clients the best execution using data science. The platform is built for institutional investors such as hedge funds, crypto miners, payment providers and proprietary traders, but currently there is no minimum order requirement for trade execution.

The company has raised over $325M in funding from various investors, including American Express Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Fidelity and Accel. The trading desk currently generates annual trading volumes of several billion dollars.

Satstreet

Satstreet is one of Canada’s fastest growing cryptocurrency exchanges. The team is leveraging industry-leading APIs, with smart order routing and domestic banks for fast settlement.

The company’s OTC desk offers bulk trades in various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum from $50k to over $50M for clients in the United States and Canada.

Satstreet is backed by Round13 Capital and several high net worth investors.

CoinJar

CoinJar is an Australian cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service that also has an OTC desk. Individuals and institutions looking to make larger transactions are given privacy and flexibility with their tailored solutions.

OTC trades at CoinJar are available from AUD $50,000 and above. The exchange is backed by prominent venture capital funds, like Digital Currency Group and Blackbird Ventures.

Kraken

Kraken, founded in 2011 in the United States, is one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in terms of Euro volume and liquidity.

For high-volume trades (over $100K) Kraken offers an over-the-counter trading desk with a 1-on-1 service. Additionally, frequent high volume traders can receive a dedicated account manager to take care of their trading needs. OTC trading is available in Canadian Dollars, US Dollars, Euros, British Pounds, Swiss Francs, Australian Dollars and Japanese Yen.

Kraken acquired Circle’s “Circle Trade” OTC platform in 2019 and has mixed it into their existing OTC service.

You can read my complete Kraken review here.

Binance

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, also provides its own OTC service. 

It is distinctly different from the other OTC platforms, in the sense that it does NOT accept fiat currency. Instead, Binance OTC takes the stablecoins USDT, USDC, or BUSD. The Binance OTC platform also facilitates crypto-to-crypto trades with trading pairs not listed on the main Binance platform.

Binance OTC’s minimum trade size is $200,000 worth of coins, with users required to first authenticate themselves. They will then contact the Binance OTC team directly for trade requests, confirmations, settlement instructions and more.

You can read my complete Binance review here.

Bitfinex

Bitfinex is a Hong Kong operated cryptocurrency exchange that has been in operation since late 2012.

For those who wish to trade major amounts ($100,000+) of cryptocurrency privately, Bitfinex provides an over-the-counter (OTC) trading facility. There are two ways to take advantage of the OTC desk:

1. Access instant liquidity through Bitfinex’s manager of OTC trading, Bill Brindise. 
2. Trade directly with another Bitfinex user.

You can read my complete Bitfinex review here.

HitBTC

HitBTC, established in 2013 and based in Hong Kong, is a cryptocurrency exchange that supplies dedicated OTC services. The minimum trade size for using OTC services is $100,000 and fees are 0.1% per trade.

HitBTC doesn’t manage the OTC service themselves, they “outsource” it to their partner Trustedvolumes.com.

The cryptocurrency community is somewhat skeptical towards HitBTC, and similar to Changelly, the company isn’t very transparent about their business.

You can read my complete HitBTC review here.

Athena Investor Services

Athena Crypto Exchange (ACE), formerly known as Athena Investor Services (AIS),was launched in late 2017. It is a high-touch OTC cryptocurrency broker that allows people in the United States to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, with a minimum transaction amount of $10,000 in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, but other currencies may be available upon request.

Payment is made via wire transfer, and the cryptocurrency is typically sent within a couple of hours, but can take up to 12 hours, depending on how long the user takes to complete the onboarding process.

SFOX

sFOX (San Francisco Open Exchange), headquartered in San Francisco, is a trading platform that supplies Bitcoin OTC services as well. It has received over $20M in funding from top tier venture funds like Social Capital.

sFOX prides itself in its various trading algorithms that allow versatile trading strategies to be executed instantly. If you trade in volumes of over $10K, you can get a discount on the algorithm fees as well.

The company sources over 80 markets, OTC brokers, and liquidity providers globally to the best price on Bitcoin possible.

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3. Traditional Exchanges Suited for Large Transactions

If you want to use traditional automated and regulated Bitcoin exchanges to buy large amounts of Bitcoin, there are several exchanges that are suited for that purpose.

Coinbase

Coinbase is one of the leading Bitcoin companies today. There are two options for you to buy large amounts of Bitcoins through Coinbase: One is Coinbase’s beginner-friendly brokerage service, and the other is through the trading platform. You can read my complete Coinbase review here.

Coinbase brokerage service

Coinbase’s brokerage service allows you to buy up to $25,000 Bitcoins per day, If you’re a fully verified member. Even though the price is very close to the market price, Coinbase will take 1% of these transactions which is relatively expensive.

Coinbase Advanced Trade

Coinbase Advanced Trade has no limits to how many Bitcoins you can purchase on the platform. When you place an order at the market price that gets filled immediately, you are considered a taker and will pay a fee between 0.04% and 0.50%.

If, however, you place an order which is not immediately matched by an existing order, you are considered a maker and your fee will be between 0.00% and 0.50%.

Bitstamp

Bitstamp, the oldest Bitcoin exchange around, currently has a relatively large trading volume. Fiat currency deposits are free with many deposit methods, and depending on your trading volume you will pay a transaction fee between 0.00%-0.50%.

If you are using SEPA or ACH to transfer your money, you won’t be charged any deposit fees. You can read my complete Bitstamp review here.

(On a personal note, I use this method to buy large amounts of coins).

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4. Conclusion

As Bitcoin continues to grow in popularity, there are more and more services popping up to help you buy Bitcoin in large amounts. The services listed above will give you a more-than-fair solution if you’re looking to buy a large amount of Bitcoin.

Regulated trading platforms will give you a more automated process, while Bitcoin OTC brokers will allow you to stay under the radar and create less price movements.

Once the trade is complete, make sure you have a safe place to store your newly bought Bitcoin, such as a hardware wallet or a paper wallet. You wouldn’t want all of this hard work to go to waste….