American multinational hedge fund Citadel is the latest traditional finance player to join the crypto space as the company is reportedly developing its own "crypto trading ecosystem" with Virtu Financial, Sequoia Capital and Paradigm.
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CoinDesk's sources close to the matter say that the financial giant is seeking "additional wealth managers" and market makers to join its initiative. One of the sources close to the talks said:
"This marketplace is intended to create more efficient access to deep pools of liquidity for digital assets. So a group of industry leaders are working closely together to facilitate the safe, clean, compliant and secure trading of digital assets."
Although no timetable was revealed, sources noted that the product is more of a marketplace than a crypto exchange as the Chicago-based company wants "to take on the exchanges by building a better mousetrap."
The news comes after Kenneth Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, hinted in an interview with Bloomberg that the company might join the crypto industry as a market maker. While Griffin said he is still skeptical about the market, there are "hundreds and millions of people in this world today who disagree with that."
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