Gravity Team has launched an institutional OTC desk offering T+0 fiat settlement across emerging-market corridors.
The desk combines digital asset liquidity with direct local banking relationships in more than 20 countries, aiming to bypass the correspondent banking chains that most OTC providers still rely on for cross-border crypto-to-fiat settlement.
Direct banking relationships replace correspondent routing
The desk is built around direct local banking relationships and local payment rails rather than the traditional correspondent banking model, which typically introduces additional intermediaries and settlement delays. According to the company, this structure allows settlement to occur directly in destination markets. Stablecoin settlement is completed in under 60 seconds, while T+0 fiat settlement is available where local banking conditions allow. Execution and conversion are supported across stablecoins, major digital assets, and more than 20 fiat currencies, covering both major global currencies and emerging-market corridors.
The service is aimed at payment service providers, fintechs, and brokers moving capital into emerging markets, where correspondent banking chains can create delays and, in some corridors, returned wires affecting inbound flow.
Market context: emerging-market crypto adoption
The launch coincides with continued growth in emerging-market crypto adoption. Chainalysis's 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report recorded a 69% year-on-year increase in transaction volume across the Asia-Pacific region, reaching USD 2.36 trillion in 2025, with Latin America following at 63% growth. Separately, Bloomberg reported that global stablecoin transactions reached USD 33 trillion in 2025, of which an estimated USD 390 billion related to real-world payments, a figure Citi projects could rise to as much as USD four trillion by 2030. Research from McKinsey and Artemis published in 2025 also found that business-to-business stablecoin payments grew sevenfold year on year, outpacing other real-economy use cases cited in the same report.
Gravity Team said its OTC desk operates as principal counterparty on transactions within pre-agreed size, price, and volatility parameters, with quotes confirmed in advance and defined validity windows, intended to reduce exposure to anonymous order-book trading for large positions.
From market making to liquidity infrastructure
Gravity Team has operated since 2017, building quantitative trading infrastructure, exchange connectivity, and banking relationships to support institutional-scale digital asset movement. The company states it facilitates more than USD 500 billion in cumulative spot trading volume across its entities, with connectivity to more than 40 exchanges in over 45 countries, representing an estimated 1% of global crypto spot volume.
Mārtiņš Beņķītis, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gravity Team, said the firm has focused on building banking relationships in markets where correspondent banking structures create friction, alongside liquidity access on local crypto-fiat exchanges, and described the OTC desk as bringing these capabilities together for external counterparties for the first time.
The launch marks Gravity Team's shift from an internal liquidity and market-making function toward offering its infrastructure directly to institutional clients operating in emerging-market digital finance.
