Market makers in the crypto industry: party planners or bartenders?

What is a market maker, and how do they differ in the crypto and traditional finance markets? At the European Blockchain Conference in Barcelona, Cointelegraph discussed the topic with key market makers in the crypto industry on one of the conference’s first panels.

Cointelegraph reporter Joseph Hall drew up the analogy that crypto market makers are much like cool bartenders at a very high-tech and unashamedly nerdy cocktail party. Their job is to keep the drinks flowing, i.e., provide liquidity and ensure everyone’s having a good time while maintaining order in the market.

Cointelegraph’s @JoeNakamoto hosting the “Why Market Making is Key for a Crypto Market Recovery” panel at the European Blockchain Convention where he so eloquently described what a market maker is pic.twitter.com/3EoJnNXLyU

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) February 16, 2023

That means they secretly hope that no one gets too drunk, makes a fool of themselves and ruins everything. Ultimately, market makers are there to manage risk and make sure the bouncers kick out the likes of Sam Bankman-Fried and other bad actors. 

In essence, crypto market makers are the ultimate party planners, but instead of balloons, cake and a banging Spotify playlist, they use leverage algorithms and order books. Head of Commercial Strategy at a large crypto market maker, Stef Wynendaele, suggested that “It’s a great definition, but it implies too much power to what a market maker does.”

“We’re actually the dance floor. We’re actually the music. We’re there to support, you know, the party. We’re there at all times. We’re there at 9 p.m. and we’re there at 5 a.m. in the morning.”

Wynendaele suggested that market makers are the foundations of a thriving crypto economy and that they’re not in fact “the bartender who controls who drinks or not.”

For Patrick Heusser, Chief Commercial Officer at Crypto Finance, the bartender analogy works well. However, “Someone has to do the logistics,” he explained. “Someone has to make sure there is enough beer in the back and stuff for the drinks–and market infrastructure is super important for market makers.”

“Otherwise, you just have fancy flashing price screens, and if you can’t settle or if you’re not comfortable with settling certain trades with certain counterparties, the marketplace is not as attractive as it should be.”

So if the crypto economy was a party, the market makers could be the…