By Digital asset market maker Caladan has connected its API Liquidity service to BitGo’s Go Network, allowing institutional counterparties to settle trades executed with Caladan through accounts held at BitGo. The integration went live on 26 August and adds BitGo to the settlement routes available behind Caladan’s execution API.
The connection separates two parts of the trade. Caladan continues to provide pricing and execution, while BitGo Bank & Trust, National Association provides custody and trading settlement for eligible clients. An institution that already has a BitGo account can direct settlement there without opening another custody account or repeating BitGo onboarding.
That distinction matters because the integration does not turn Caladan into a custodian or BitGo into the execution counterparty. It gives clients another route for completing trades after agreeing them through Caladan, alongside the fiat and stablecoin settlement channels already supported by the liquidity provider.
Execution Stays With Caladan While Settlement Moves to BitGo
Caladan launched API Liquidity in May with access to more than 100 digital assets across spot and perpetual markets. Counterparties can connect directly through several versions of the FIX protocol or reach Caladan through platforms including Talos, Finery Markets and CrossX.
The service already listed Hidden Road and BitGo as custodial settlement options, Customers Bank’s CUBIX network for US dollar settlement, and direct settlement in two major stablecoins. The latest announcement establishes that the BitGo route is now operational for Caladan counterparties rather than remaining a product option on a connectivity list.
John Gu, CEO at Caladan, said, “Settlement is where institutional trust is earned or lost.” He said the connection adds another settlement option for counterparties that assess the controls used throughout the execution chain.
The structure follows other attempts to divide custody, execution and settlement in institutional crypto markets. Spotex connected its crypto ECN to Go Network in August, allowing eligible clients to use BitGo custody while executing on the external venue. Caladan performs a different trading role as a market maker and liquidity counterparty, but the infrastructure principle is similar.
How Go Network Settlement Works
BitGo describes Go Network as an off-chain settlement system operating within qualified custody. Network participants can make unilateral transfers or use bilateral delivery versus payment. In the bilateral workflow, one counterparty proposes delivery of an asset in exchange for another asset or fiat currency, and both legs transfer after the second participant approves the instruction.
Because both balances sit within BitGo’s custody infrastructure, settlement can be recorded through internal book entries rather than waiting for separate blockchain transfers. That can reduce settlement time, network costs and the risk that one counterparty delivers while the other fails to perform. It also allows institutions to apply BitGo account policies and approval controls to movements.
The Caladan announcement does not specify whether every trade will use bilateral delivery versus payment, unilateral transfers or another Go Network workflow. It also does not identify the assets supported through this particular connection. API Liquidity advertises more than 100 assets, while Caladan’s homepage uses a “Symbols Traded” counter of 1,000 on desktop and 1,080 in its mobile statistics block. The API product therefore represents a published subset of Caladan’s wider trading universe, but the exact assets eligible for BitGo settlement remain undisclosed.
Existing BitGo Clients Avoid Duplicate Setup, Not All Onboarding
Caladan said Go Network settlement is immediately available to all of its API Liquidity counterparties. That statement describes product availability, not automatic access to a regulated custody account. The promise of no additional onboarding, setup or custody changes applies specifically to counterparties that already operate BitGo accounts.
New BitGo clients remain subject to eligibility, know-your-customer checks, contractual documentation and jurisdictional restrictions. BitGo’s legal disclosures identify BitGo Bank & Trust as the entity providing US custody and trading settlement services. The entity is a national trust bank chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, but it does not execute digital asset trades. BitGo Prime is a separate affiliate and acts as counterparty for trades conducted through BitGo’s own trading service.
The distinction also limits what “bank” means for users of the service. BitGo states that its entities do not carry Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or Securities Investor Protection Corporation insurance. Qualified custody and a federal trust charter provide a regulated safekeeping framework, but they do not turn digital asset balances into insured bank deposits.
The Integration Reduces Some Risks but Leaves Key Terms Undisclosed
Internal settlement can reduce the period during which assets are moving between unrelated wallets and can prevent one side from delivering first when delivery versus payment is used. It may also reduce the operational burden of reconciling trades across a market maker, custodian and blockchain addresses.
It does not remove counterparty or operational risk. Institutions remain exposed to Caladan on execution obligations, BitGo on custody and settlement, the legal agreements governing the trade, and any credit or margin arrangements between the parties. The announcement does not disclose settlement frequency, prefunding requirements, credit limits, collateral haircuts, default procedures, service fees or initial transaction volume.
Those details have also defined the expansion of Go Network elsewhere. Gate US added BitGo off-exchange settlement in July, while STS Digital joined the network to combine external liquidity with custody-based settlement. BitGo has also worked with Copper on a multi-custodian settlement model. Each arrangement can reduce direct exposure to a trading venue, but its risk reduction depends on the contractual and collateral structure used.
Caladan’s Singapore Base Is Not a Singapore Licence
Caladan describes itself in the announcement as Asia’s largest digital asset market maker and says it facilitates more than $170 billion in annual volume across at least 65 exchanges. Those are company claims, and the release provides no comparative ranking or volume methodology. Caladan’s homepage contains two reader-facing counter configurations for the same metric. Its desktop statistics block gives average annual volume as $170 billion, while its mobile statistics block is configured to display $50 billion. The $50 billion figure also appears in the page’s search-result description. The company has not publicly reconciled the two figures.
The homepage contains further numerical differences. Its statistics counters give 65-plus exchanges, while the FAQ says Caladan connects to more than 70 centralised and decentralised exchanges. The “Symbols Traded” counter also differs by layout, showing 1,000 on desktop and a target value of 1,080 in the mobile block. The page does not explain whether the figures use different definitions or measurement dates, so none should be treated as a precise current count.
Its Singapore headquarters also should not be read as regulatory status. Caladan’s own disclosure says no group member is licensed or regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It says the Singapore entity does not conduct regulated activity or provide digital-token services in or from Singapore, and that the market-making services described on its website are supplied by group members outside the country.
BitGo does have a separately MAS-regulated Singapore entity, but the parties named BitGo Bank & Trust as the settlement provider for this integration. That makes the legal division straightforward: institutional trades are executed through the relevant Caladan group operation, while settlement for eligible clients is handled through BitGo’s US national trust bank. The connection adds another piece of post-trade infrastructure to Caladan’s API, but transaction volumes and operating terms will determine whether it becomes a primary settlement route rather than an additional option.