Citadel Securities Eyes Crypto Market-Making

Citadel Securities, the leading financial services provider and trading firm, is targeting the crypto market-making business. According to sources from Bloomberg, the firm plans to become a liquidity provider on major exchanges such as Coinbase, Binance, and Crypto.com.

The market-making giant aims to establish trading teams outside the US, pending approval on exchanges. The level of commitment may vary with the development of new regulations in the coming months.

This move illustrates a departure from Citadel Securities’ earlier cautious approach to crypto market-making, where it maintained limited involvement, especially with retail-focused exchanges due to regulatory uncertainties in the US.

Previously, the Miami-based firm partnered with Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments to launch EDX Markets in 2023, an institutional-only crypto exchange that mimics traditional stock and bond market settlement structures.

Citadel Securities, along with other financial institutions, has pushed for clearer regulatory frameworks for digital assets to pave the way for institutional investment. The firm intends to provide liquidity in digital assets, paralleling its operations in equities and fixed-income markets.

This strategy aligns with the Trump administration’s more favorable stance towards crypto assets, which included an executive order on digital assets and the establishment of an SEC crypto task force under Hester Peirce, a noted advocate for the industry.

In contrast to competitors such as Jane Street Group and Jump Crypto—who entered the crypto trading space early but scaled back US operations amid a regulatory purge in 2023—Citadel Securities has mostly avoided crypto market-making. Under CEO Peng Zhao, the firm has evolved from a small entity alongside Griffin’s hedge fund into a global trading leader across various traditional asset classes.