Cowen has launched a digital asset division to offer full-service trade execution and custody solutions to institutional investors.
The new division, named Cowen Digital, will be headed by Drew Forman, Cowen’s former managing director and head of equity derivatives.
Cowen Digital will enable institutional investors to access Cowen’s aggregated liquidity through a central counterparty and give them the access to post-trade reporting capabilities.
Through Cowen Digital, investors will be able to trade directly from Standard Custody’s cold storage solution, avoid pre-funding requirements and receive flexible net settlement arrangements. They will also be given access to analysis from Cowen Research.
Cowen’s digital custody solutions will be provided through Cowen’s strategic partnership with Polysign’s Standard Custody & Trust.
Cowen has said that future functionality for Cowen Digital will include derivatives and futures, as well as institutional decentralised finance and non-fungible token access.
Newly appointed head of Cowen Digital, Forman, has more than 15 years’ experience in derivatives and trading, having held other senior industry roles at JP Morgan Chase and Nomura Securities.
Commenting on the new division, Jeffrey Solomon, chair and CEO of Cowen, says: “Through Cowen Digital, our clients now have access to the crypto and digital asset markets with our institutional quality, fully integrated end-to-end execution, and custody capabilities.”
Dan Charney, co-president of Cowen, comments: “We are very pleased to publicly announce Cowen Digital, which has been trading crypto on behalf of our clients for several months. Cowen Digital provides our institutional client base with the same dedicated level of thought leadership, product capability, service and professionalism they have come to expect from Cowen.”
