As digital assets begin to make their mark across the industry, institutional appetite is growing, however operational challenges appear to be creating obstacles for traditional finance firms looking to enter these markets.
An increasing number of asset managers, banks and trading firms are beginning to actively explore crypto markets, however issues related to connectivity, infrastructure and workflows for traditional finance means that firms cannot ‘plug and play’ their existing technology to access digital assets, as underlined by a recent Acuiti report.
Specifically, two thirds of respondents to the survey said that building connectivity to crypto venues was ‘challenging’, while only 34% found no difference to traditional markets.
According to the study, the most commonly cited connectivity issue in crypto derivatives trading from respondents was the lack of standardisation across venues, with more than 75% highlighting this as the most significant challenge.
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In addition, structural hurdles such as navigating access to liquidity across fragmented venues and optimising latency and performance were also further issues that firms highlighted when seeking to achieve efficient connectivity in these markets.
Speaking to The TRADE, Will Mitting, founder and managing director at Acuiti, said: “We have seen an uptick in interest in the second half of 2025 from firms in traditional finance to enter digital assets markets. This is in part due to regulatory clarity in the US but also as a result of expectations that tokenisation will become a key part of financial workflows over the next five to 10 years.
“Digital assets markets today are still very fragmented both in terms of liquidity but also in terms of the lack of standardisation of things like protocols and APIs at venues. Moving from tradfi to crypto is not a plug and play but requires an understanding of the nuances of the market.”
The challenge ahead
The study’s findings indicate that adapting to digital assets is not a difficult task because these markets are relatively new to the industry, but instead, because they do not behave like any other institutional market.
This sentiment was also echoed in the survey when it comes to the challenges of building front office software for digital assets trading, due to a historical lack of established third-party vendors.
As revealed in the study, half of the firms surveyed built their front office software in-house, while only 10% opted for a third-party vendor, although all firms that outsourced began crypto trading operations with the last five years.
Additionally, utilising a mixture of front office software, sourced from in-house, third-party vendors and broker provided solutions are also a popular choice for some firms looking to integrate into crypto markets, indicating the increasing sophistication of third-party products.
As institutional interest in digital assets continues to grow, it appears that the firms that embrace purpose-built infrastructure rather than rely on legacy systems will reap the most rewards. Although various obstacles to the integration of traditional finance with crypto derivatives markets remain, the landscape is continually evolving, and will be one to watch in the months, and years to come.
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Acuiti collated its “Navigating the path to crypto: A guide for tradfi firms” report through conversations with key market players, as well as members of its crypto derivatives expert network that had made the transition from traditional finance to crypto.