Research & Perspectives

Insights

Market analysis, regulatory commentary and institutional perspectives from the Bequant trading desk.

11 articles
Market Analysis · Featured

The Gamblification of Everything

A contract that pays a dollar if an event happens and nothing if it does not is a derivative. It is also a bet. For most of financial history those were different regulators, different venues, different customers. In 2026 they are the same screen, and that screen has order books.

June 2026 · George Zarya
Market Analysis

It Started as Arbitrage and Became Anthropology

The artificial intelligence revolution did not start in a research lab. It started on a trading desk, and what those desks learned about patterns turned out to be a theory of mind nobody asked for.

June 2026 · George Zarya
Market Analysis

How crypto quants parse geopolitics, and what the Iran war just rewired

On March 6, the world's largest gold ETF shed $3 billion in a single session. Over the same window, BlackRock's IBIT pulled in $306 million. JPMorgan's Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou put numbers on the rotation in a research note that landed quietly the following week: GLD had lost roughly 2.7% of its AUM in outflows since the start of the Iran war, while IBIT had gained 1.5%. For ten years, the digital gold thesis was something Bitcoin maximalists asserted and the market quietly disproved at every test. On March 6 the test went the other way for the first time.

May 2026 · George Zarya
Regulatory

What tradfi convergence delivers to the crypto-native desk

The SEC is about to hand crypto-native exchanges the US tokenized equities market on lighter terms than Nasdaq operates under. Combined with the institutional market makers now arriving on-chain, the convergence trade pays a specific kind of desk: the one built to run equities, commodities, FX and crypto from a single risk engine.

May 2026 · George Zarya
Infrastructure

Is anyone a quant now? What LLMs do — and don't — change about crypto trading

LLMs didn't make anyone a quant. They removed the excuse for not being one. I tested this myself recently. No coding background to speak of, no quant experience in any formal sense — just curiosity and a Claude subscription. Over a few evenings I ended up with something that worked: a data pipeline, a backtest, an execution layer wired into a CEX, basic risk monitoring. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't going to compete with anyone serious, but it ran. And it produced something that at least resembled signal. Eighteen months ago that would have taken me a team and six months. Now it took a weekend and a chat window. The math was never the bottleneck for most people trying to go pro. The scaffolding was. And the scaffolding is now free.

May 2026 · George Zarya
Market Analysis

Allocation of Capital in Crypto: Where Strategy Selection Matters in 2026

Not all crypto strategies are earning their keep right now. Here's what's working, what's struggling, and why the allocation question has never been more important.

April 2026 · Bequant
Regulatory

MiCA and Market Making: What Regulated Status Means for Token Projects

Token projects increasingly require regulated market makers for tier-1 exchange listings. We examine what MiCA authorisation means in practice for liquidity arrangements.

March 2026 · BEQUANT
Infrastructure

OTC and Fiat Rails: Why Settlement Speed Has Replaced Spreads as the Real Differentiator

Tight spreads on OTC trades are table stakes. In 2026, the desks that win institutional flow are the ones with fiat rails that actually settle — fast, reliably, and in the currencies clients need.

March 2026 · Bequant
Infrastructure

Off-Exchange Settlement: Hedging Counterparty Risk Without Sacrificing Execution

Exchange counterparty risk remains one of the most underpriced risks in institutional crypto. Off-exchange settlement via regulated custody is the solution most desks are missing.

February 2026 · BEQUANT
Credit & Lending

Understanding Undercollateralised Lending in Digital Assets

How institutional credit facilities work in crypto markets, and why undercollateralised lending requires a fundamentally different risk framework than traditional finance.

January 2026 · BEQUANT
Credit & Lending

Portfolio Margined Loans: Why No Automated Liquidation Matters

Automated liquidation has been one of the most destructive forces in crypto markets. Portfolio margined loans without auto-liquidation represent a fundamentally better structure for institutional borrowers.

November 2025 · BEQUANT