SIG’s involvement in Bitcoin dates back to 2014, when the Winklevoss twins, founders of the Gemini Exchange, requested SIG to participate in a Bitcoin Exchange-Traded fund, which was trying to receive approval from regulators.
The regulators did not accept the proposal, but SIG realized the growing demand cryptocurrencies and related investments. SIG started accepting clients as the cryptocurrencies started gaining popularity in 2015 onwards.
Susquehanna will begin trading Bitcoin futures, a derivative contract tied to the price of Bitcoin. Additionally, the investment banking firm will allow its clients to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash.
The firm is actively involved in trading stocks and other derivative instruments. Therefore, it may try to launch cryptocurrency trading in a big manner, and beat the popular names in the Wall Street. The assumption is based on the fact that Susquehanna did not reveal anything about its operation about cryptocurrencies in the past two years. So, there may be a lot going on behind the screen.
The privately held Susquehanna’s crypto trading desk is made up of a dozen traders who actively trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies worth millions of dollars in private deals. Susquehanna is one of the largest players in stocks and derivatives such as futures, options and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Bart Smith head of Susquehanna’s digital asset group said
“We believe that this technology and this asset class is going to change some facet of financial services, and we think it is going to exist forever.”