Bitcoin’s Trading Star Is Chicago High-Speed Firm That Nods to the Grateful Dead
ALEXANDER OSIPOVICH NOVEMBER 27, 2017
One of Chicago’s largest high-speed traders has taken a central role in the bitcoin market, stepping into the vacuum created by Wall Street’s hesitant response to the booming investor interest in digital currencies.
DRW Holdings LLC uses quantitative models to buy and sell bitcoin, for its own account and for use as a market maker—firms that grease the wheels of finance by buying, selling and quoting prices. Cumberland, DRW’s digital-currency unit, says it has traded more than $20 billion worth of bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies in the past year. That makes it one of the top market makers in the sector, traders said.
Bitcoin, invented less than a decade ago, is up more than 900% this year and recently surpassed $9,000 for the first time. It was trading at $9,338.20 late Sunday. The value of all the bitcoins in existence is about $157 billion, more than the market capitalization of Caterpillar Inc.
Despite those gains, the market for bitcoin is plagued by extreme volatility and an uncertain regulatory status, factors that have limited the interest of many Wall Street firms. DRW started its bitcoin desk more than three years ago, but banking giants such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. are just now considering how they will handle bitcoin trading.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoins-trading-star-is-chicago-high-speed-firm-that-nods-to-the-grateful-dead-1511787600
