Nasdaq’s recent announcement of a blockchain-integrated margin and collateral management solution—developed in collaboration with QCP, Primrose Capital Management, and Digital Asset Holdings—marks a pivotal moment in the institutionalization of the OTC crypto market. We sat down with Melvin Deng, CEO of QCP to explore what this means for the broader digital asset ecosystem, and how this innovation could reshape capital markets.
What motivated QCP to partner with Nasdaq on this initiative?
Our motivation was simple: to build the future of financial market infrastructure with a world-class leader. For digital assets to achieve widespread institutional adoption, they need to be supported by the same institutional-grade, trusted technology that powers traditional markets. As an early investor in the Canton Network and contributor to its infrastructure and product testing, QCP saw a unique opportunity to co-develop critical rails for institutional crypto adoption. Nasdaq is a global technology company with unmatched expertise in building resilient and scalable capital market solutions. This partnership allows us to co-develop and integrate a solution that bridges the gap between traditional and digital finance, which is core to QCP’s mission of making digital assets an indispensable part of every institutional portfolio.
How does this blockchain-based solution improve workflows for OTC crypto derivatives?
It fundamentally transforms them by moving from slow, manual processes to a fully automated, real-time environment. Previously, margin calls and collateral movements were often manual, creating settlement delays and operational risk. Built on Nasdaq’s Calypso platform and the Canton Network, the solution streamlines end-to-end operations, from margin calls and collateral pledging to dispute resolution. By leveraging a shared ledger on the Canton Network, all parties have a single source of truth for pricing data, which eliminates disputes and settlement lags. Most importantly, it supports a 24/7 margining regime, which is essential for the always-on nature of crypto markets.
What are the biggest challenges this technology solves if institutionalized?
The two biggest challenges this solves are counterparty credit risk and inefficient capital allocation. For years, institutions have been hesitant to engage deeply in OTC crypto markets due to the difficulty of managing counterparty risk in real-time. This technology directly addresses that by providing an automated, 24/7 margin and collateral regime. This, in turn, solves the second problem of “trapped capital.” By improving the speed and resilience of collateral mobility, firms no longer need to over-collateralize or have capital sitting idle waiting for slow settlement processes. And because it operates on a synchronized ledger with real-time visibility, it allows for seamless interoperability between legacy finance and on-chain environments. It unlocks significant pools of inventory and allows capital to be deployed far more efficiently.
How do you see this impacting the adoption of tokenized traditional assets and stablecoins as collateral?
This is a crucial catalyst for their adoption. A major hurdle for using tokenized assets and stablecoins as institutional collateral has been the lack of a trusted, automated infrastructure to manage them. For a bank or prime broker to accept a tokenized bond, for example, they need a system that can value it in real-time and execute margin calls instantly, 24/7. This integrated capability provides exactly that. The solution is explicitly designed to support the integration of stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets as eligible collateral, effectively making them “plug-and-play” for institutional risk management systems. This is already being put into practice with integrations on Canton, as well as tokenized collateral flows supported by QCP.
What role does trust and network validation play in this new infrastructure?
Trust is the absolute foundation. Enhancing trust in the infrastructure that underpins the digital asset ecosystem is critical for its long-term development. That is why it’s so significant that Nasdaq will operate as a validator on the Canton Network. Having a globally recognized market operator like Nasdaq validating transactions provides an unparalleled level of integrity and assurance to the network. It signals to institutions that the network is not just technologically innovative but is also governed and secured to the highest possible standards.
How does this fit into QCP’s broader roadmap for digital asset innovation?
This partnership is a core component of our roadmap; it’s the foundational rails upon which we will build our next generation of products. QCP, as Asia’s leading digital asset partner and a strategic backer of Canton, is actively building compliant infrastructure to scale derivatives, and structured products for institutions. Our vision is to make digital assets a foundational part of institutional balance sheets, and that requires market infrastructure that is both innovative and trusted. As we announced in the release, leveraging this groundbreaking capability, we will be developing a new suite of OTC spot and derivatives products. This advanced infrastructure allows us to build more sophisticated solutions for our clients and accelerate our mission to bridge traditional and digital finance.
What outcomes do you expect for the ecosystem in the next 12–18 months?
Over the next 12 to 18 months, we expect to see the direct results of this innovation manifest in three key ways. First, greater institutional participation in the OTC space, as this technology significantly mitigates counterparty risk. Second, increased market liquidity and capital efficiency, as 24/7 margining and accelerated settlement unlocks capital that was previously trapped. Finally, you will see a new wave of product innovation. For firms like ours, it means we can bring more complex, structured products to market that were previously too difficult to manage from a collateral perspective. In short, the market will become safer, deeper, and more mature. With over 400 institutions already building on Canton and more than $4 trillion in tokenized asset flows, this is no longer theoretical. The infrastructure is live—and scaling.
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