Jump Trading CTO that left for crypto joins rival high frequency trading firm
At the height of its popularity, the crypto industry had serious pulling power over the high frequency trading world. These days, it's a less attractive proposition, and some who previously made the move are now coming home. The latest example of this is a former executive at Jump Trading.
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Steve Hunt has joined DRW Trading as its chief technology officer in Chicago. He's spent the last six and a half years as a VP of engineering at crypto exchange Kraken. Hunt spent a decade as CTO of Jump Trading, in which he said he had direct responsibility for business areas including quantitative research, high-performance computing and security. Hunt initially joined Jump from Goldman Sachs, where he spent six years and was a technology VP.
Hunt and his former employer seem to be taking a step back from crypto at the same time. Jump's crypto subsidiary, Jump Crypto, was alleged to have lost more than a quarter of a billion dollars last year, and was embroiled in legal drama following the collapse of TerraUSD. It has recently been spotted offloading large amounts of cryptocurrencies to major exchanges, and its high-profile now-28-year-old president departed the company two months ago.
DRW, contrarily, has shown more appreciation for crypto in 2024; recent SEC filings revealed the firm holds more than $195m of crypto ETFs, and its crypto trading desk, Cumberland, recently acquired a Bitlicense in New York. It also hired Sam Adams, head of software at crypto brokerage LMAX, in March.
Hunt isn't the only person to leave Kraken recently. Other senior departures have opted to stay in crypto, however, joining firms like Binance and Gemini.
Crypto is in a peculiar state at the moment. Bitcoin prices tanked earlier this month along with various stock markets, but its recovery has been slower than other markets and bitcoin's value is still down 11% month-on-month.
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