Citadel plans to invest in crypto, CEO admits he was wrong about industry

Citadel, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund and financial services firm based in the United States, is planning to enter the crypto market this year.

Citadel founder Ken Griffin spoke on the current state of markets in light of recent geopolitical events on Bloomberg Wealth, claiming that they are at a “very volatile inflection point.”

When the conversation came to digital assets, Griffin stated that the company would be participating in crypto space as soon as this year, after previously warning the younger generation away from them and saying “there’s no need for cryptocurrencies.”

He has been a known crypto critic who said in November 2017 that “Bitcoin right now has many of the elements of the tulip bulb mania we saw back hundreds of years ago in Holland.”

“These bubbles tend to end in tears,” he noted at the time, adding that he is concerned about how this bubble will burst.

Griffin admitted in the Bloomberg Wealth interview that he was wrong to be in the “naysayer camp” when it came to digital assets. “Over the last 15 years, cryptocurrency has been one of the great stories in finance,” he said.

“And I’ll be clear, I’ve been in the naysayer camp over that period of time. But the crypto market today has a market capitalization of about $2 trillion in round numbers, which tells you that I haven’t been right on this call.”

Citadel enters crypto world

Citadel examines global markets and employs a variety of strategies to provide its capital partners with market-leading investment gains. Griffin wants the company to incorporate digital currencies into these strategies in the next few months.

Citadel Securities reported its first outside investment in January, totaling $1.15 billion, from Sequoia Capital and Paradigm, two famous crypto venture capital firms. Citadel was valued at $22 billion following the investments, with about $38 billion in funds under management.

The billionaire investor went on to praise Ethereum’s features, predicting that Ethereum-based assets will eventually replace Bitcoin, which has a higher impact on the environment.