tBTC (TBTC) - Fundamental Analysis April 2026

tBTC (TBTC): Comprehensive Cryptocurrency Overview

Core Technology and Blockchain Architecture

tBTC is a decentralized, permissionless Bitcoin bridge protocol that enables the minting of 1:1 Bitcoin-backed tokens across multiple blockchain networks including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, Solana, Sui, Starknet, and BOB. Unlike centralized wrapped Bitcoin solutions, tBTC eliminates single points of control through threshold cryptography, a distributed key management system where no single entity possesses complete control over the private keys securing Bitcoin reserves.

The protocol operates on a 51-of-100 threshold signature scheme (tECDSA), meaning any 51 signers from a pool of 100 randomly selected node operators must collectively authorize transactions moving Bitcoin. Each signer holds only a key share rather than the complete private key, and these partial signatures are cryptographically combined to produce a single valid transaction signature. This architecture ensures that no individual operator or small subset can unilaterally access or move funds.

Signers are selected from the Threshold Network's node pool based on their staked T tokens (with a 40,000 T minimum stake requirement) and are rotated bi-weekly to prevent collusion and long-lived key exposure. The random selection process, weighted by stake amount, ensures that larger stakeholders have proportionally higher selection probability while maintaining unpredictability that prevents attackers from predicting or controlling which signers will be chosen.

Bitcoin wallets backing tBTC are generated at regular intervals (approximately every two weeks) and are controlled by the governable number of signers. The protocol employs Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) proofs to verify Bitcoin deposits on other blockchains, enabling trustless confirmation of Bitcoin transactions without requiring full Bitcoin node validation. An optimistic minting mechanism delivers tBTC to users within approximately three to four hours of Bitcoin deposit confirmation, with an insurance backstop providing additional security in case of protocol breaches.

The system relies on an honest-majority assumption and probabilistic security calculations to ensure wallet security. Even if a signer set is compromised, existing Bitcoin deposits in earlier wallets retain their original security guarantees, as new deposits are directed to newly generated wallets with fresh signer sets.

Primary Use Cases and Real-World Applications

tBTC enables Bitcoin holders to access decentralized finance without surrendering custody or self-sovereignty. The protocol facilitates several critical use cases:

Lending and Borrowing: Users can deposit tBTC as collateral to borrow stablecoins or other assets on platforms including Aave, SparkLend, and Morpho. As of end of 2025, Aave hosted approximately $154 million in tBTC TVL, representing 37% of tBTC's total DeFi TVL and making it one of the largest tBTC pools in the ecosystem.

Liquidity Provision: tBTC can be paired with other assets in decentralized exchanges and automated market makers. Curve Finance hosts major tBTC liquidity pools with approximately $99 million in TVL as of end of 2025, enabling users to earn trading fees while providing market liquidity.

Yield Generation: Integration with protocols including Ember Protocol, Yield Basis, Mezo, and others enables yield strategies on Bitcoin holdings. Ember Protocol on Sui offers exclusive Bitcoin collateral with target yields of 8.11% APY and $17.53 million in deposits. Yield Basis provides leveraged strategies with $17 million in deposits. These yield opportunities allow Bitcoin holders to earn returns without selling their Bitcoin.

Capital Markets: tBTC is increasingly used in Bitcoin options, futures, and other derivatives markets, enabling Bitcoin participation in sophisticated trading strategies and hedging mechanisms.

Cross-Chain Composability: tBTC functions across multiple blockchain ecosystems, enabling Bitcoin participation in diverse DeFi applications. As of September 2025, tBTC had expanded to seven major chains with over $500 million in Bitcoin liquidity accessible through direct minting on the Threshold app. Wormhole serves as the primary interoperability provider, enabling fast and secure transfers between Ethereum, Sui, Starknet, and other networks in 15-20 minutes.

As of January 2026, tBTC TVL reached approximately 5,942 BTC (representing roughly $406 million at April 2026 prices), with 97% of supply concentrated on Ethereum. The protocol has facilitated over 48,000 BTC in cumulative bridge volume and surpassed $1 billion in cumulative volume on Wormhole by February 2026.

Founding Team, Key Developers, and Project History

tBTC's current form is the product of a landmark merger between two distinct blockchain projects—Keep Network and NuCypher—which combined in January 2022 to form the Threshold Network. Understanding the team requires examining both founding organizations and the venture studio that incubated Keep Network.

Thesis: The Venture Production Studio

Keep Network and the original tBTC were built under the umbrella of Thesis, a Boston-based venture production studio founded in January 2018 by Matt Luongo and Corbin Pon. Thesis has served as the organizational backbone for both Keep Network and the tBTC protocol.

Matt Luongo is the primary founder of Keep Network and the original architect of the tBTC concept. As CEO of Thesis, Luongo drove the vision of bringing Bitcoin into decentralized finance without relying on custodial intermediaries. His work on Keep Network introduced the concept of "keeps"—off-chain containers for private data secured by a distributed node network—which became the cryptographic foundation for tBTC v1. Luongo has been a prominent voice in the Bitcoin-on-Ethereum interoperability space since at least 2018.

Corbin Pon co-founded Thesis alongside Luongo and served as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer. With over a decade of software development and entrepreneurial experience, Pon brought operational and technical depth to the organization. Prior to his blockchain work, he co-founded Scholrly (2010–2014), an expert network search engine, and worked as a software engineer at Lockheed Martin (2009–2010) focusing on geospatial intelligence products for defense applications. He is also a co-founder of Fold, a Bitcoin rewards platform, which he has maintained concurrently since 2014.

NuCypher: The Cryptographic Counterpart

NuCypher was founded in 2015 and completed Y Combinator's S2016 batch, giving it strong Silicon Valley roots and early-stage institutional validation. The company specialized in proxy re-encryption and threshold cryptography—technologies that became central to Threshold Network's security model.

Maclane Wilkison co-founded NuCypher and served as its CEO through the merger with Keep Network. Under his leadership, NuCypher raised significant funding and developed the NU token and its staking infrastructure. Wilkison shaped the governance and tokenomics of the merged Threshold Network, including the design of the T token merger mechanics. In February 2025, the Threshold DAO approved Threshold Improvement Proposal 100, establishing T Network Labs LLC (tLabs) as a dedicated development entity registered in Wyoming, with Wilkison leading the organization to accelerate tBTC development.

Michael Egorov served as CTO of NuCypher from March 2015 to June 2020, co-founding the company through Y Combinator. He was instrumental in building NuCypher's core encryption infrastructure using proxy re-encryption to enable secure data sharing in distributed systems. After departing NuCypher, Egorov founded Curve Finance in January 2020, which became one of the most significant decentralized exchange protocols in DeFi history with billions in total value locked.

David Nuñez has served as Chief Technology Officer and lead cryptographer at NuCypher since June 2021, with his cryptographic research role dating back to April 2018. Based in Spain, Nuñez is a specialist in proxy re-encryption and privacy-preserving cryptographic systems. He is the recipient of the JNIC 2017 Best PhD Thesis Award (national level, Spain) and the ERCIM STM WG 2017 Award for the Best PhD Thesis on Security and Trust Management (European level). His academic and applied cryptography expertise underpins NuCypher's contributions to Threshold Network's TACo (Threshold Access Control) system.

Threshold Network: The Merged Entity (2022–Present)

Following the January 2022 merger, Threshold Network operates as a unified protocol governed by a DAO. The combined team draws from both Keep Network and NuCypher contributors, with ongoing development supported by Threshold Labs.

Callan Sarre serves as Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Threshold Labs, the primary development organization behind tBTC post-merger. Sarre has been an active public spokesperson for tBTC's BitcoinFi narrative, representing the project at industry conferences.

Ethan Hassall joined Threshold Network's Integration Guild Committee in March 2023 and progressed to Growth Lead (March 2024) before being appointed Head of Business Development in April 2025. During his tenure as Growth Lead, Hassall was directly responsible for growing tBTC's TVL from approximately $80 million to over $400 million, primarily through integrations with major DeFi lending markets including Aave, Morpho, and SparkLend/MakerDAO.

Miquel Cabot joined Threshold Network as a Senior Blockchain Engineer in January 2025. He holds a PhD in Information and Communications Technologies (Blockchain) from the University of the Balearic Islands and brings expertise in Rust, Solidity, and Web3 development. Prior to Threshold, he served as a Senior Blockchain Developer at Ocean Protocol and as a Blockchain Engineer at Keyko.

James Campbell has been a Blockchain Developer at NuCypher since March 2022, contributing to the Threshold ecosystem's technical infrastructure. A Python, Rust, and Solidity specialist with expertise in low-level cryptography and high-throughput smart contracts, Campbell has accumulated over 11,466 GitHub contributions.

Manuel Montenegro has been a Software Developer at NuCypher since December 2021, specializing in protocol infrastructure for the TACo system. He previously conducted research at NICS Lab, University of Malaga, and is a winner of the MOBI Grand Challenge Hackathon (February 2019).

Isabella Yu joined Threshold Network as Growth Lead in May 2025, based in Hong Kong, with a mandate to drive tBTC adoption across DeFi, institutional platforms, and Bitcoin-native ecosystems.

Project History Timeline

Tokenomics: Supply, Distribution, and Mechanics

T Token (Threshold Network Governance Token)

The Threshold Network is powered by the T token, which serves as both a governance token and the economic security layer for tBTC. The T token originated from the merger of KEEP and NU tokens in January 2022.

Supply Metrics: The T token has a fixed total supply of approximately 10.5 billion tokens established at the time of the merger. No new token generation events occur; instead, the supply remains constant with T tokens distributed to holders of KEEP and NU tokens at predetermined merger rates. The circulating supply is variable, as T tokens are staked by node operators to secure the network.

Distribution and Staking: T token holders can stake their tokens to run Threshold Network nodes and participate in protocol governance through the Threshold DAO. Node operators must maintain a minimum stake of 40,000 T tokens to be eligible for signer selection. Stakers earn rewards from bridge fees and protocol activity. As of January 2025, proposals were under discussion to redesign T tokenomics to address inflation concerns and improve value accrual mechanisms.

Fee Structure and Value Accrual: As of January 2026, tBTC implemented stake-based fee waivers for T holders. The current fee structure includes a 0% mint fee and a 0.2% redemption fee (waivable for T stakers based on stake amount). Protocol revenues from bridge fees are distributed to T token holders through buybacks, creating direct value accrual to the token. In Q4 2025, Threshold Network generated $506,040 in gross protocol revenue, with quarterly revenues ranging from $234,240 to $601,150 throughout 2025.

tBTC Token (Bitcoin-Backed Asset)

tBTC itself operates on a supply-pegged model rather than a traditional fixed supply:

Supply Mechanism: tBTC is minted when users deposit Bitcoin into the protocol and burned when users redeem their Bitcoin. The supply of tBTC directly mirrors the amount of Bitcoin deposited; there is no independent inflation or deflation mechanism. As of April 1, 2026, tBTC supply stood at 5,900 units with a fully diluted valuation of $406,641,351.

Backing and Peg Maintenance: Each tBTC token is fully backed 1:1 by native Bitcoin held in reserve by Threshold Network signers. This backing mechanism is fundamental to the token's value proposition and distinguishes it from other wrapped Bitcoin solutions. The 1:1 peg is maintained through the protocol's custody model and the economic incentives of node operators.

Relationship Between T and tBTC: The relationship between T and tBTC is complementary. T secures the network and accrues value from bridge fees through buybacks, while tBTC serves as the primary product enabling Bitcoin utility in DeFi. The fee waiver mechanism for T stakers creates direct utility for the governance token while incentivizing network participation and capital efficiency for frequent bridgers.

Consensus Mechanism and Network Security Model

tBTC does not operate its own blockchain; instead, it leverages the Threshold Network's distributed node infrastructure and threshold cryptography for security.

Threshold Signature Scheme (tECDSA)

The protocol uses a 51-of-100 threshold ECDSA signature scheme. For any Bitcoin transaction, at least 51 of the 100 signers controlling a wallet must cooperate to produce a valid signature. This threshold requirement ensures:

Distributed Trust: No single signer or small group can unilaterally move funds. The requirement for a supermajority of signers to cooperate eliminates single points of failure present in centralized custodian models.

Honest Majority Assumption: Security relies on the assumption that at least 51% of signers will act honestly. Probabilistic security calculations demonstrate the mathematical likelihood of wallet compromise under various attack scenarios, with the threshold designed to make coordinated attacks computationally and economically infeasible.

Probabilistic Security: Signer selection is randomized using a cryptographic random beacon, making it computationally infeasible for an attacker to predict or control which signers will be chosen. The weighted selection mechanism based on staked T tokens ensures that larger stakeholders have proportionally higher selection probability while maintaining unpredictability.

Signer Selection and Randomization

Signers are selected using two mechanisms:

Random Beacon: A cryptographic technique that generates unbiased randomness to select signers from the available pool, preventing predictability or manipulation.

Sortition Pool: A weighted selection mechanism that chooses signers based on their staked T tokens, ensuring larger stakeholders have proportionally higher selection probability while maintaining the randomness necessary for security.

Signers are rotated periodically (approximately every two weeks), reducing long-lived key exposure and limiting the window during which an attacker could compromise a signer set. This rotation schedule balances security against operational efficiency.

Economic Security

Staked T tokens serve as the economic value securing the system. Node operators must maintain a minimum stake of 40,000 T tokens to be eligible for signer selection. Slashing mechanisms provide incentives for honest behavior, with operators facing financial penalties for misbehavior or failure to maintain service.

Forward Security

Even if a signer set is compromised, existing Bitcoin deposits in earlier wallets retain their original security guarantees. New deposits are directed to newly generated wallets with fresh signer sets, ensuring that historical deposits benefit from the security model at the time they were made. This forward-looking security design prevents a single compromise from affecting all historical deposits.

Key Partnerships and Ecosystem Integrations

Major DeFi Protocol Integrations

Aave: tBTC was listed on Aave v3 in September 2024 and has become one of the largest tBTC pools, reaching approximately $154 million in TVL by end of 2025. Aave was proposed to join the Threshold Council, participating in protocol governance. The integration across multiple Aave deployments (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base) demonstrates significant institutional adoption.

Curve Finance: Curve hosts major tBTC liquidity pools with approximately $99 million in TVL as of end of 2025. Curve DAO played a key role as a minter and guardian during tBTC v2's initial permissioned minting phase, providing early validation and liquidity infrastructure.

SparkLend: Approximately $12 million in tBTC TVL, providing lending and borrowing functionality for tBTC holders.

Morpho: Major integration enabling efficient lending and borrowing of tBTC with optimized capital efficiency.

Uniswap: tBTC is available on Uniswap for trading and liquidity provision across multiple chains.

Ember Protocol: tBTC is the exclusive Bitcoin collateral on Ember's new vault on Sui, with $17.53 million in deposits and target yields of 8.11% APY.

Yield Basis: Partnership providing protected liquidity provision with impermanent loss protection, with $17 million in deposits.

Mezo: tBTC-backed BitcoinFi platform enabling lending, borrowing, and yield generation on Bitcoin.

Multi-Chain Deployments

tBTC is deployed across nine major blockchain networks with active integrations:

• Ethereum: Primary deployment with the largest liquidity concentration and most mature ecosystem integrations
• Arbitrum: Significant tBTC adoption with multiple DeFi integrations
• Base: tBTC integrated across multiple protocols
• Polygon: Additional Layer 2 deployment with growing adoption
• Optimism: tBTC available for DeFi applications
• Solana: tBTC available for DeFi applications with growing ecosystem support
• Sui: Launched in July 2025 as the first non-EVM chain to support direct tBTC minting, with integrations on Bluefin, Bucket, AlphaLend, and AlphaFi; Sui Foundation partnership bringing $500 million in Bitcoin liquidity
• Starknet: tBTC integrated via StarkGate bridge with 100 million STRK allocated for Bitcoin liquidity incentives
• BOB Network: Additional deployment expanding Bitcoin liquidity across ecosystems

Institutional and Infrastructure Partners

Coinbase Ventures: Early investor in Threshold Network, providing institutional validation and resources.

a16z (Andreessen Horowitz): Investor in the project, bringing venture capital support and network effects.

Nexus Mutual: Integrating tBTC as a capital pool asset, enabling insurance mechanisms for tBTC holders.

Thesis Ecosystem: Corbin Pon's Fold platform and the broader Thesis ecosystem (including Mezo and Lolli, acquired July 2025) create synergies for Bitcoin rewards and DeFi integration.

Wormhole: Primary interoperability provider enabling fast and secure transfers between Ethereum, Sui, Starknet, and other networks in 15-20 minutes.

Polkadot: Governance has proposed converting 500,000 DOT into tBTC for treasury diversification, demonstrating institutional confidence in the protocol's security and decentralization.

Unified Router and Infrastructure: In March 2026, Threshold launched the Unified Bitcoin App, a coordinated execution layer enabling users to mint, redeem, swap, and bridge tBTC across multiple chains through a single interface.

Competitive Advantages and Unique Value Proposition

Decentralization and Trust-Minimization

Unlike WBTC (which relies on BitGo as a centralized custodian) and other wrapped Bitcoin solutions, tBTC distributes custody across a decentralized network of 100 randomly selected signers. This eliminates single points of failure and reduces counterparty risk compared to centralized bridge solutions. The threshold cryptography approach provides mathematical guarantees of security without requiring trust in a single entity.

Permissionless Minting and Redemption

tBTC enables any Bitcoin holder to mint and redeem tokens without intermediaries or approval from a central authority. This permissionless design aligns with Bitcoin's core values of censorship resistance and decentralization, contrasting sharply with WBTC's requirement for intermediary approval.

Proven Security Track Record

tBTC has operated continuously for over six years without a major security incident. The protocol has undergone rigorous audits and is fully open-source, allowing community scrutiny and contribution. As of February 2026, tBTC had processed $3.6 billion in cumulative volume, demonstrating the robustness of the threshold cryptography approach.

Capital Efficiency

tBTC v2 improved upon v1 by reducing collateral requirements for signers and increasing network scalability. Recent upgrades including gasless minting (November 2025) and stake-based fee waivers (January 2026) further improve capital efficiency for frequent bridgers, market makers, and institutional users.

Multi-Chain Compatibility

Unlike some Bitcoin bridges limited to specific blockchains, tBTC is designed to work across multiple chains—Ethereum, Layer 2s, Solana, Sui, Starknet, and others—providing Bitcoin liquidity wherever it is needed. This multi-chain presence enables users to access tBTC in their preferred DeFi environment.

Comparison to WBTC

Current Development Activity and Roadmap Highlights

Recent Upgrades (2025-2026)

November 2025: Threshold Network introduced direct, gasless minting of tBTC, simplifying cross-chain Bitcoin access and reducing friction for users. This major protocol upgrade was accompanied by a redesigned website targeting institutional audiences while maintaining familiarity for long-term Bitcoin holders.

January 2026: Stake-based fee waivers for T token holders went live, allowing stakers to reduce or eliminate tBTC redemption fees. This mechanism improves capital efficiency and creates direct utility for the T token while incentivizing network participation.

February 2026: tBTC surpassed $1 billion in cumulative volume on Wormhole, highlighting growing cross-chain demand. Threshold published the 2025 Benchmark Report with Alea Research, providing data-driven analysis of tBTC supply trends and DeFi TVL metrics.

March 2026: Threshold launched the Unified Bitcoin App, a coordinated execution layer enabling users to mint, redeem, swap, and bridge tBTC across multiple chains through a single interface.

2026 Roadmap Priorities

Threshold App-Chain Development: A key long-term upgrade involves moving the network's consensus to a dedicated app-chain, breaking reliance on Ethereum for coordination, reducing fees, and enabling native tBTC minting on any chain. This represents the ultimate Bitcoin liquidity and settlement layer for DeFi.

Schnorr and BitVM2 Upgrades: Planned protocol upgrades to enhance security and enable permissionless staking, further decentralizing the network. BitVM2 vaults will upgrade tBTC's custody model to a 1-of-N honesty assumption, further reducing security assumptions and improving capital efficiency.

Bitcoin Core Integration: Monitoring Bitcoin core developments (e.g., OP_CAT, OP_CTV) and adapting tBTC accordingly to leverage new Bitcoin capabilities.

Capital Markets Expansion: Continued focus on Bitcoin options, derivatives, and other capital market applications, positioning tBTC as the standard for Bitcoin finance.

Cross-Chain Expansion: Further deployments to emerging Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, expanding Bitcoin liquidity across diverse ecosystems.

tLabs Governance Restructuring (Q1 2026): Centralization of tBTC development under tLabs for faster execution and clearer product strategy, with MacLane Wilkison leading the organization.

tBTC v2 vs. v1: Key Differences

tBTC v1 (2020) was the original implementation but was temporarily suspended due to a discovered vulnerability, limiting its adoption and real-world utility.

tBTC v2 (launched 2021 under Threshold Network) represents a complete redesign addressing v1's limitations:

• Scalability: v2 supports multiple chains and higher throughput compared to v1's Ethereum-only design
• Trust-Minimization: v2 employs a 51-of-100 threshold signature scheme with rotating signers, compared to v1's more limited security model
• Permissionless Operations: v2 enables fully permissionless minting and redemption, whereas v1 had restrictions
• Optimistic Minting: v2 introduces optimistic minting for faster user experience (3-4 hours vs. longer confirmation times in v1)
• Multi-Chain Support: v2 is live across nine major blockchains, enabling Bitcoin liquidity across diverse ecosystems
• Institutional Features: v2 includes features like gasless minting and fee waivers designed for institutional users

Market Performance and Risk Assessment

Current Market Data (April 1, 2026)

• Price: $68,921.36 USD
• Market Capitalization: $406,641,351
• Trading Volume (24h): $5,297,331
• Market Rank: #112
• Price Change (24h): +3.11%
• Price Change (1 week): -2.81%
• Price Change (1 hour): +0.12%

Historical Price Performance

• All-Time Peak: $124,049.00 (October 5, 2025)
• 1-Year High: $124,049.00 (October 5, 2025)
• 1-Year Low: $68,921.36 (current price, April 1, 2026)
• 1-Year Price Change: -17.4% (from $83,474 on April 3, 2025)

The price decline from the October 2025 peak reflects broader cryptocurrency market volatility and profit-taking following significant gains. However, the current price remains substantially above historical lows, and the protocol's TVL has continued to grow despite price volatility, indicating strong fundamental adoption.

Risk Assessment

tBTC carries a risk score of 58.07 out of 100, indicating moderate risk. Key risk factors include:

Custody Risk: While distributed, the security model depends on the integrity of threshold cryptography and node operator behavior. The 51-of-100 threshold provides strong security guarantees, but the system's security ultimately relies on the honest-majority assumption.

Smart Contract Risk: As a token deployed across multiple blockchains, tBTC faces smart contract risks on each chain. However, the protocol has undergone rigorous audits and has operated without major incidents for over six years.

Liquidity Risk: With a liquidity score of 26.17, tBTC has moderate liquidity relative to its market cap. However, liquidity has improved significantly with integrations on major DEXs and lending protocols.

Market Volatility: Volatility score of 4.02 indicates relatively low price volatility compared to broader cryptocurrency markets, reflecting tBTC's 1:1 Bitcoin backing and stable peg maintenance.

Bridge Risk: As a bridge asset, tBTC depends on the continued operation and security of the Threshold Network infrastructure. However, the decentralized signer model and multi-chain deployment reduce concentration risk.

Regulatory Risk: As a Bitcoin bridge, tBTC may face regulatory scrutiny regarding custody and financial services regulations. However, the decentralized nature of the protocol and lack of a central custodian may provide regulatory advantages compared to centralized alternatives.

Current Staking and Yield Opportunities

T Token Staking: Users can stake T tokens at the Threshold Network staking interface to participate in network security and earn fee waivers on tBTC redemptions. Staking is optional, and eligible participants receive fee waivers based on their stake amount and protocol parameters.

tBTC Yield Strategies:

• Ember Protocol: tBTC is the exclusive Bitcoin collateral on Ember's vault on Sui, with $17.53 million in deposits and target yields of 8.11% APY
• Yield Basis: tBTC integration supporting leveraged strategies with $17 million in deposits
• Mezo: tBTC-backed platform enabling lending, borrowing, and yield generation on Bitcoin
• Liquidity Pools: tBTC-MUSD pools on Merkl and other DEXs provide liquidity provider yields
• Lending Protocols: Integration with AlphaLend, Aave, and other protocols enables lending yields on tBTC collateral
• BTC-Denominated Yield Vault: Noon launched a BTC-denominated yield vault with approximately 7% APY

Fee Waiver Mechanism: T stakers receive redemption fee waivers based on their stake amount, creating direct utility and reducing bridge costs for frequent users. This mechanism incentivizes T token holding and network participation while improving capital efficiency for active traders and market makers.