Crypto analytics at scale: How B2C2 trades smarter in a 24/7 market

Discover how B2C2 partners with KX to power real-time crypto analytics, manage risk, and stay competitive in a market that never sleeps.

What does it take to stay ahead in crypto’s high-stakes, high-speed environment? In a recent webcast, Nick Shindo, Business Development Director for Japan at KX hosted a conversation with Jad Sarmo, Head of Quantitative Development at B2C2, one of the world’s top institutional liquidity providers in digital assets. Together, they explored what it means to operate effectively in a market that never stops moving.

The discussion covered the evolution of crypto from a speculative niche into a sophisticated institutional asset class. Jad spoke openly about the realities of data engineering, quant research, and building infrastructure that can handle billions of trades per day without faltering.

Webcast summary

From sentiment-driven volatility to infrastructure challenges, the digital asset market presents new complexities that require specialized solutions. Jad brought deep experience from his FX background and gave an inside look at how B2C2 operates in a market where milliseconds and terabytes define the competitive edge. Below are six key takeaways from the session.

1. Institutional demand is driving the need for advanced crypto analytics

Crypto has evolved well beyond its early retail roots. Institutional players are now deeply embedded in the market, bringing both increased professionalism and elevated expectations around execution, transparency, and infrastructure. According to Jad, the tipping point was the approval of Bitcoin ETFs and increased regulatory clarity. This shift means that liquidity providers and market makers are no longer simply reacting to volatility but actively building systems that mirror the rigor of traditional finance.

“Bitcoin alone has a $2 trillion market cap. It’s too large to ignore. Institutional players demand transparency, best execution, and robust infrastructure. We’re in a different place now than we were even four or five years ago.” – Jad Sarmo, B2C2

2. Why always-on infrastructure is core to real-time crypto analytics

One of the most distinctive challenges in digital assets is that the market never closes. Unlike traditional markets with downtime and trading windows, crypto is live every second of every day. This means systems must be resilient, globally distributed, and capable of handling continuous loads without fail. Jad explained that the technical standards required to meet these demands often surpass those seen in traditional finance, because there is no recovery window if something fails.

“Crypto never sleeps for sure. It’s not just a saying, it’s our operational reality. Our systems are always on. There’s no market close, no downtime, no batch window. Everything needs to be real time and resilient.” – Jad Sarmo, B2C2

3. Fragmentation is crypto’s biggest engineering problem and solving it is key to success

There are over a hundred crypto exchanges, each with its own APIs, quirks, and data structures. Add to that the diversity of data types – from on-chain metrics to off-chain order books, from centralized trading desks to decentralized liquidity pools – and the challenge becomes clear. For B2C2, solving this fragmentation problem means investing heavily in data normalization, standardization, and real-time ingestion. Clean, accurate data is a necessity.

“Having clean, real-time, high-frequency data is a serious engineering challenge. There’s no co-location, exchanges don’t tell you where they are, and the data comes in all kinds of formats: on-chain, off-chain, derivatives, sentiment. That’s what we have to work with in this space.” – Jad Sarmo, B2C2

4. Scaling quant research with accessible crypto analytics

As B2C2’s quant team grew, so did the complexity of managing research, deployment, and production safety. Jad emphasized the need for a standardized workflow that prevents ‘notebook chaos,’ a common issue in firms where researchers operate independently without shared infrastructure. The solution has been to create clear libraries, version control, and tools like PyKX that allow Python users to access powerful KX systems. This enables innovation without compromising system integrity.

“Every researcher likes to go away and run their own Jupyter notebook to build what they believe is a fantastic model. But the route to production is very different. The data needs to be versioned too, and that’s less obvious in the quant world.” – Jad Sarmo, B2C2

5. Operationalizing AI for scalable, production-ready crypto analytics

While AI and GenAI are dominating headlines, Jad was quick to point out that these technologies only deliver value when backed by robust infrastructure. The models themselves are not the hard part. What matters is building clean data pipelines, versioning everything, and monitoring model performance in production. B2C2 uses AI for sentiment analysis, compliance workflows, and predictive analytics but it is the operational maturity, not the novelty, that makes it work.

“What people get wrong about AI is very similar to what they get wrong about general modeling… They skip the hard stuff: data hygiene, pipeline validation, reporting. It’s very easy to build a model, but much harder to deploy it to production. That’s what turns AI from a buzzword into something that’s actually an advantage.” – Jad Sarmo, B2C2

6. Open-source tools are great to start with but they break down at scale

In crypto, the barrier to entry is low. Anyone can spin up a server and start trading on the same venue as the largest liquidity providers. But while open-source time-series tools may get a project off the ground, they rarely hold up under the volume, latency, and fault-tolerance demands of institutional-grade trading infrastructure.

At B2C2, scalability and reliability take priority. Jad noted that the real challenge isn’t getting started, it’s sustaining performance and managing costs as your system grows in complexity and data volume.

“You have a lot of open-source tools and they’re great to get going, but the engineering cost balloons quickly when you go from pet project to production workload.” – Jad Sarmo, B2C2

With billions of ticks to process and sub-millisecond decisioning requirements, B2C2 relies on KX to deliver consistent performance under pressure without the mounting overhead of stitching together fragmented tooling.

Why KX?

B2C2 partners with us to power its data infrastructure, analytics, and real-time trading workflows, enabling performance at a scale few others can match. From ingesting terabytes of fragmented exchange data to supporting high-frequency market-making models across global venues, we provide the speed, flexibility, and reliability that crypto-native firms demand.

Here are the specific ways we help B2C2 stay ahead:

1. Ultra-low latency ingestion and analytics

Our vector-native, time-series architecture enables B2C2 to process millions of ticks per second with minimal overhead, critical for pricing, risk, and execution.

2. Unified access to real-time and historical data

We support seamless data fusion, giving quants the ability to work with live and historical feeds through a single interface. This enables faster research and more effective trading models.

3. Empowering quants through PyKX

PyKX is a ‘game changer’ allowing B2C2 to extend the power of kdb+’s powerful q programming language to its broader research community. Python-native quants can run powerful analytics without needing deep q knowledge, accelerating development while maintaining governance.

4. Scalable infrastructure that supports growth

B2C2 runs its infrastructure in the cloud, scaling dynamically based on market demands. kdb+’s cloud-native architecture integrates seamlessly with AWS and supports horizontal scaling, reducing operational complexity.
“Upgrading a server in a bank takes three to six months. In the cloud, it’s a five-minute job. With AWS and KX, we can spin sandboxes easily and ingest over a terabyte of data a day.”

5. Reliable performance during market volatility

In times of stress, when prices spike or venues fail, we provide the stability and visibility B2C2 needs to remain operational and competitive.

“We’ve had major market events, crashes, even exchanges disappearing overnight. The infrastructure was boringly smooth, and boring is good when you’re talking about real-time trading systems.” – Jad Sarmo, B2C2

Future-proofing crypto analytics for institutional trading

Jad Sarmo offered a clear message for anyone building in crypto today: speed, precision, and scale are table stakes. Whether you’re a quant, engineer, or trading lead, your systems need to keep up with a market that moves fast and never stops. B2C2’s success is built on more than just smart models, it’s powered by operational excellence and a deep understanding of what it means to build for a 24/7 trading world.

For more insights on how we help leading digital asset firms optimize execution, manage risk, and build scalable analytics platforms, read our ebook: ‘Winning the digital assets race’ or reach out to chat with a member of our team.