ADV Insights: Top 5 Emerging Prime Brokers of 2023

October 18, 2023

 

Prime brokers are financial institutions that provide a range of services to hedge funds, asset managers, and other institutional clients. Their primary role is to facilitate trading and provide various support services, including securities lending, margin financing, and access to global markets.

Radient Form ADV data looks at some of the major prime brokers in the industry and tracks their growth and activities.

This blog compares the activities of 5 emerging prime brokers from 2022 to 2023. The 5 emerging prime brokers are:

1) CoinBase Global Inc
2) Clear Street Holdings
3) Charles Schwab
4) State Street
5) First Republic Bank

(To find emerging contenders, we focus on prime brokers that are currently servicing less than 200 funds)

1) Coinbase Global

coinbase prime

  • CoinBase added 35 new funds in 2023, the prime broker started Jan 2023 with 49 funds and is now currently servicing 84 funds.
  • Total Gross Asset Value jumped from $7.3B as of Jan 2023 to $19B in Oct 2023, ie 160% increase in 10 months.

In Sept 2023, Coinbase launched a crypto lending service aimed at U.S.-based institutional investors, already attracting over $57 million in investments through its Coinbase Prime service.  Coinbase Prime is the platform’s full-service Prime brokerage system for institutional investors, allowing them to execute trades and custody of digital assets. Coinbase’s move into institutional lending arrives at a crucial time for the crypto market, filling a void left by failed ventures.

Some of CoinBase Global’s clients include:

 

 

2) Clear Street Holdings

clear street

Clear Street began five years ago by launching a prime brokerage business using a proprietary modern technology stack. Clear Street boasts of roughly 200 institutional-sized investors and hundreds of smaller active trading entities.

  • The number of funds serviced by Clear Street grew nearly 115% in 10 months, from servicing 27 funds in Jan 2023 to 58 funds in Oct 2023
  • The prime brokerage services also saw a jump of 221% in total gross asset value it manages from $5.5B (Jan 2023) to $17.7B (Oct 2023).
  • Boothbay Fund Management disclosed Clear Street as a new prime broker for two of its funds in 2023- Boothbay Absolute Return Strategies and Boothbay Diversified Alphas Master Fund

 

Some of Clear Street’s other clients include:

 

 

3) Charles Schwab

charles schwab

  • Saw a 15% increase in the number of funds it services from 171 (In Jan 2023) to 197 (in Oct 2023)
  • The total gross asset value managed also witnessed an increase of 38% in the last 10 months.
  • Hall Capital Partners disclosed Charles Schwab as a new prime broker for several of its funds in 2023

Some of Charles Schwab’s clients include:

 

 

4) State Street

State_Street_Corporation_logo.svg

  • Saw a 32% increase in the number of funds it services from 73 (In Jan 2023) to 96 (in Oct 2023)
  • The total gross asset value managed also witnessed an increase of 33% ( from $143B to $191B) in the last 10 months.

Some of State Street’s clients include:

 

 

5) First Republic Bank

first republic

  • The number of funds serviced by First Republic grew nearly 9% in 10 months, from servicing 137 funds in Jan 2023 to 149 funds in Oct 2023
  • However, the Total Gross Asset value managed by the broker fell by 8% from $17.7B to $16.3B.

 

Some of First Republic Bank’s clients include:

 

If you are interested in finding insights on specific prime brokers or gauging market trends, visit Radient or write to us at support@radientanalytics.com

 

 


About the Author

Sanjana Shethia

Sanjana is a finance enthusiast with a passion for programming and data science. She focuses on the performance attribution, portfolio performance and product development of RADiENT. She is also actively involved in business development. Sanjana previously worked in the Treasury department of a large securities brokerage and asset manager in Mumbai. Sanjana graduated with a Bachelors in Commerce from Symbiosis College and is a Chartered Accountant (equivalent to a US CPA)

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