Market maker Citadel Securities is increasing its presence in the crypto industry, investing in crypto startups and building a market making team. Sister firm, hedge fund Citadel, is much quieter on its own crypto strategy but, based on recent hires, it has an appreciation for talent in the space.
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Kevin Nassery joined Citadel to lead its security risk and compliance for the Americas. He spent the last two years as VP of security for blockchain infrastructure firm RISC Zero. The firm provides ‘zero-knowledge’ infrastructure that can turn C++ or Rust code into cryptographic records (proofs) usable across different blockchains.
Before that, Nassery was also chief information security officer at Gemini, a crypto exchange led by the Winklevoss twins. He succeeded David Damato in the role, who now also works at Citadel as its chief information security officer. Hiring tech executives then hiring their replacements seems to be a bit of a trend at Citadel.
If Citadel is warming to crypto at a similar rate to Citadel Securities, it has come a long way from when Ken Griffin called the excitement around crypto ‘a Jihadist call against the dollar’ back in 2021. Last month, Citadel Securities reportedly co-led a fundraise for infrastructure firm Ripple at a $40bn, while both Citadel and Griffin himself were revealed to own shares in Solana treasury firm Defi Dev Corp.
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