The crypto brokerage model is growing rapidly as digital assets become a widely accepted financial asset class. Crypto brokers will play a significant role in connecting the traditional financial system to the blockchain-based market in 2026. They will provide a simplified way to access these markets, a variety of competitively priced services that enable managed trading for customers.

In contrast to exchanges that cater primarily to more advanced traders, brokers focus on usability, regulatory compliance, and personalized service. As such, this type of business model offers a very attractive opportunity to new entrants.

Crypto Broker vs Crypto Exchange

While crypto brokers operate within the same ecosystem as crypto exchanges, they serve different purposes.

Crypto exchanges allow users to access the market directly through order books or automated market makers. Users based on crypto exchange infrastructures place their own orders, which are typically presented on very complicated interfaces.

In contrast, crypto brokers serve as intermediaries. They consolidate liquidity from several exchanges or liquidity providers and provide users with a fixed or optimized price. Brokers take care of executing, sourcing liquidity, and storing, and so streamline the entire process for users.

Purpose:

Brokers primarily serve the goal of making trading simple while still aligning with regulations. Brokers have a focus on retail investors, institutions, and inexperienced traders who prefer the convenience and transparency offered by a managed execution as opposed to the complexity of using various trading tools.

Sources of Revenue:

Funds specifically for crypto brokers are primarily derived from a variety of charges associated with the various services offered by the broker. Some examples of these fees include spread, trading commissions based on trading volume, margin and leverage fees, and other custody fees, as well as commissions and other services offered by a broker's trading desk or portfolio manager.

What Resources Are Needed to Build a Crypto Brokerage?

In-depth Knowledge of the Crypto Industry

To create a successful crypto brokerage, firms must possess a comprehensive understanding of the various aspects of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Making crypto-related quotes, managing crypto-related risks, and having the ability to make better strategic decisions.

Marketing and Business Development Skills

As the crypto business grows, brokers have to compete with each other for customer acquisition through their marketing strategy. Buying and building a strong brand image, finding consistent customer acquisition via digital marketing channels, creating referral programs, and formulating partnership agreements will help brokers retain customers/traders.

Extensive Experience in Trading or Finance

Brokers with extensive financial market experience will be able to manage spreads more effectively, control liquidity, and assess risks better than those without this experience, and these skills are essential in order to maintain profitability during periods of extreme market volatility.

A Competent Team of Professionals

A crypto brokerage company consists of a team of experts from many disciplines, including compliance, backend development, DevOps, trading, customer support and marketing.

Large Capital

The business model of a crypto brokerage requires significant amounts of capital to secure liquidity, comply with regulatory requirements, fund its operations, take on market exposure, and invest in marketing and technology.

Top-Grade Infrastructure

To ensure that their trading systems perform to the highest level, brokers must provide robust trading systems that offer high-speed execution of trades, access to secure wallets, and a scalable IT infrastructure.

Strong Partnerships

Establishing strong partnerships with liquidity providers, exchanges, custodians, banks, and payment gateways is extremely beneficial for brokers, providing access to additional markets and creating further opportunities to generate revenue through the various fees associated with these partnerships.

Ways to Start a Cryptocurrency Brokerage Platform

Building a Stand-Alone Brokerage From Scratch

Starting a brokerage from a blank canvas allows you to have total control over your technology, branding, pricing, and data. At the same time, building from zero will require a large upfront investment, a long wait to begin trading, and ongoing maintenance.

Partnering with a Third-Party White Label Provider

By using a white-label solution, you will significantly reduce your time-to-market because these services provide you with ready-to-go platforms with built-in liquidity, compliance tools, and trading interfaces, making them perfect for quickly launching your startup.

Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Crypto Brokerage from Scratch

Step 1: Research the Market

Conduct Competitor Research and Identify Underserved Regions and Customer Segments.

Step 2: Assess Your Financials

Once the broker obtains their license from the regulatory body, they will need to evaluate their operations to establish how much they will need to invest at the outset of starting their trading business (initial capital), how much liquidity they will require while trading (liquidity), and what their compliance costs (including any ongoing costs) with several different countries' federal regulatory laws (compliance) will be.

They should also determine how much they will be spending every month on operational expenses associated with running their broker-dealer business.

Step 3: Develop a Financial Plan

The broker-dealer must identify what type of revenue stream(s) to have (different revenue streams), identify their pricing model/model for application of the spread (pricing model/s) and determine their long-term growth strategy.

Step 4: Secure Funding

The broker-dealer will be able to access funds through venture capitalists, angel investors or other institutional sources or from their own cash reserves, depending on the type of business they want to develop.

Step 5: Obtain Necessary Licenses and Register Your Firm

Register your company with the State and get your company registered as a crypto-related business, and establish KYC and AML compliance.

Step 6: Build a Team

The broker should hire experienced individuals across all four areas of expertise: technology, compliance, operational support and customer service.

Step 7: Form Strategic Partnerships

The broker should form strategic partnerships with liquidity providers, custodians, banks and payment service providers.

Step 8: Create Necessary Infrastructure

They must build or integrate into their platform/sufficiently adequate trading platforms, digital wallets, risk management tools, and a comprehensive administration dashboard to operate their broker-dealer business.

Step 9: Market Your Brokerage

Launch marketing campaigns and build trust through transparently displaying how you do business.

Step 10: Launch Your Brokerage

Now that the platform has been created, the next step is to onboard clients onto the newly established trading platform as well as monitor system performance and optimize trade execution.

Building a Brokerage with the Help of Third-Party Software

There has been a growing trend among brokers utilizing third-party vendors to set up brokerage businesses. These vendors provide all the necessary software tools to establish a complete brokerage, including trading platforms, liquidity aggregation, compliance tools, and risk management systems, and provide adequately sized infrastructure to scale.

By using these solutions to get started with minimal setup requirements or effort, brokers can experience the advantages associated with launching their business quickly and with less operational complexity.

Basic Elements of Crypto Broker Infrastructure

Trader's Room

The trader's room is central to trader accounts because it allows traders to register and complete the KYC verification process, manage their trading profile, view balance, view current and closed trades, track profit/loss, and view live transaction history.

A well-made trader's room allows transparency so that traders can easily access and maintain control over their accounts, which increases their trust in a broker.

Main Trading Platform

This is the Main interface for executing trades. The broker's platform shows live prices of the market, charts, spreads, and the status of any pending orders. The trading platform that brokers utilize for their clients needs to be fast, stable, and user-friendly.

This allows clients the ability to place multiple trades without stopping and reinstalling their trading platforms after every trade. Immediate trade buy/sell, market orders, limit orders, and price alerts are required for a smooth trading experience.

Liquidity

The provision of liquidity is one of the main functions of the broker. It enables the broker to offer competitive rates and provide a rapid means to execute orders. Generally, most brokers will obtain liquidity from numerous different exchanges and/or liquidity providers, thereby reducing slippage and providing tight spreads.

Without a comprehensive liquidity structure, brokers cannot accept large volumes of orders without affecting the market price.

Capital Management

A capital management system enables brokers to monitor their exposure and manage both their margin and risk in real-time. Capital management systems are able to monitor user positions, calculate the dollar amount of profits and losses, enforce margin requirements, and manage excessive risk during periods of increased volatility. Effective capital management protects both the broker and its users.

Wallets

A proper secure wallet infrastructure to protect the broker's digital asset from being lost, stolen, or compromised. A broker will typically utilize hot wallets and cold wallets. Hot wallets are used for performing daily transactions, while cold wallets are used for storing assets for the long term.

Multi-signature, encryption, withdrawal limits, and continuous monitoring are ways that brokers can protect the funds and make it difficult for unauthorized parties to access and steal the funds belonging to an individual.

Conclusion

As an entrepreneur looking to start a cryptocurrency brokerage, if you have the financial resources, knowledge, and network to build out your business model from the ground up, you will have a lot of opportunities. An established brokerage that has been built using a white-label solution has the potential to scale rapidly in the ever-evolving world of digital assets.

If you are looking to get started with a crypto brokerage firm, we are here to help you with cryptocurrency trading platform development. Get in touch with us!

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