Caladan and NextBlock Partner to Expand South Korean Institutional Liquidity

Global liquidity provider and proprietary trading group Caladan announced a strategic partnership with South Korean infrastructure firm NextBlock on Nov. 10 to supply global digital asset liquidity to domestic institutional market participants ¹. Under the agreement, NextBlock will integrate Caladan's liquidity feeds directly into its proprietary smart order routing engine, NextRoute ¹.

NextBlock operates an institutional-only prime brokerage run by Kane Company Inc., providing domestic listed firms, asset managers, and financial institutions with digital asset execution under Financial Intelligence Unit compliance frameworks ¹. The partnership connects Caladan’s market-making footprint—spanning more than 65 exchanges and over-the-counter venues—into NextBlock's local South Korean order architecture ¹. The move directly targets a transition in South Korean regulatory policy, where the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has outlined a phased approach to open virtual asset trading to corporate entities alongside updated investor protection rules ¹.

Institutional Infrastructure Expansion

The tie-up reflects a broader push by international market makers to position execution infrastructure across Asia-Pacific jurisdictions as regulatory clarity takes shape ¹. Julia Zhou, co-founder and president of Caladan, said the collaboration aims to pair global order book depth with localized infrastructure as South Korea expands institutional access ¹.

The initiative follows previous international regulatory and network milestones for Caladan, including securing in-principle broker-dealer approval from Dubai's VARA, an integration with Zero Hash, and joining BitGo's Go Network for post-trade institutional settlement ¹. NextBlock chief executive Chan Sim stated that integrating Caladan's order flow expands the liquidity network available through NextRoute as corporate demand increases ¹. At the time of writing, major digital assets traded slightly down, with $BTC at $74,776 and $ETH at $2,121 amid a broader institutional market cap of $2.48 trillion.