London-based GSR, one of crypto’s largest market makers, has agreed to acquire Equilibrium Capital Services, a FINRA-registered broker-dealer shell company based in Portland, Oregon. The market maker is paying “low six figures” for the largely dormant subsidiary of a namesake company building ESG-friendly portfolios to fast-track its entrance into U.S.-regulated securities activity.
GSR first explored a stateside broker-dealer license in 2021 but found the door effectively closed. At the time, crypto firms had no viable path into U.S. securities markets. That’s now shifting. Under the Trump administration, digital assets have become a policy focus, and legislation moving through Congress is beginning to outline clearer rules of the road.
The acquisition enables GSR to provide investment banking services to traditional companies and crypto startups looking to raise money, especially those seeking to add digital assets like bitcoin or stablecoins to their balance sheets.
“We’ve seen both in the Clarity Act and the Senate banking bill new exemptions to the securities laws that will allow projects with tokens to raise funds either via private placements or directly from the public, and I think that’s the area where GSR will be able to play a more direct role, as we do with our clients now just not in the security space,” says Joshua Riezman, GSR’s U.S. chief strategy officer.
So far, the company has handled such work through third-party partners, and it is becoming increasingly important to its business. This year, GSR led two $100 million digital asset treasury deals with Nasdaq-listed companies: one with Upexi, tied to the solana cryptocurrency, and another with MEI Pharma, which launched a treasury strategy around litecoin. MEI has also engaged GSR as a strategic advisor and treasury manager.
As a U.S.-regulated broker-dealer, GSR could take on even more roles in such transactions and beyond. “It’s been the summer of digital asset treasuries, and to me it kind of looks like the pump.fun moment for traditional finance,” says Riezman, referencing the popular memecoin launchpad whose viral success last year tested Solana’s resilience. “Digital asset treasuries are similarly testing this combination of public markets, traditional securities law and crypto in a way that hasn’t happened before, and we think it’s just the beginning.”
No other major crypto marker maker holds a U.S. broker-dealer license, though Riezman expects rivals to follow: “as an industry we were effectively precluded from applying and obtaining broker-dealer statuses before. We think that’s changing, and the best in class will look to get licensed.” London-based Wintermute, another major trading firm, has already opened a New York office earlier this year as part of its U.S. push.
Founded in 2013, GSR has traded more than $1 trillion in digital assets, providing liquidity across more than 250 tokens for exchanges, protocols, and institutions. Some of its biggest clients include Ripple, Ethena Labs and Sei. While best known for its trading business, the firm has steadily broadened its reach adding venture investing, asset management and a growing portfolio of the so-called real-world asset (RWA) initiatives, including a recent partnership with DigiFT and an investment into Maverix Securities.
Says Riezman, “We’re putting together all the pieces of what a modern crypto capital markets partner should look like.”