Jump Crypto Launches as Firm Lifts Veil on Activities
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: September 15, 2021
Historically a secretive firm, Jump Trading Group has formally launched Jump Crypto, a team dedicated to the growth and development of blockchain ecosystems and cryptocurrencies.
Kanav Kariya has been named president of the business, which has been six years in the making. Previously Jump’s crypto activities came under the Jump Capital brand. In a blog announcing the formal launch, Kariya writes, “While we at Jump often fashion ourselves as quiet builders, in this new community driven world we’ve recognised the need and value of building in the open and being a strong voice in the public discourse.”
Jump Crypto will take an active role in building software infrastructure and tooling for blockchain ecosystems, the firm says, in addition to being an active participant in trading and market-making activities that help make global crypto markets more efficient. As founding code contributors to projects such as the Pyth network, an oracle for real-time on-chain market data, and Wormhole, a blockchain interoperability protocol, Jump Crypto’s team has been actively creating decentralised, open-source tooling that seek to solve real-world problems in the public domain for more than six years.
“Blockchains enable global consensus amongst mutually distrusting parties,” says Kariya. “They empower developers to create open applications that codify the rules and outcomes of participation for all parties. Pyth is a great example of this, as a trustless system for data producers to independently contribute information to a shared piece of decentralised infrastructure.
“We believe that current DeFi applications are only the tip of the iceberg,” he continues. “These new, open rails have the capacity to enable innovation and product models that stretch far beyond the realms of traditional financial systems. Jump Trading has spent decades focused on building the infrastructure for high performance systems and technologies. We’re bringing that muscle to crypto and aim to meaningfully contribute to the construction of the ‘plumbing and the railroads’ necessary for widespread adoption of crypto.”
Dave Olsen, president and chief investment officer of Jump Trading Group, adds, “The finance industry is undergoing one of the biggest paradigm shifts in its history propelled by innovations in decentralised ledger technologies that will significantly enhance legacy systems and facilitate connectivity across financial service firms, and institutional and retail investors globally. Having been at the forefront of development in digital assets and DeFi, we believe there is substantial opportunity for industries including healthcare, real estate and social media to leverage the blockchain to transfer information in a trusted, efficient manner.”
Through a combination of trading intelligence, liquidity, and code contribution, Jump Crypto is one of the most sophisticated entities involved in crypto today. Jump Crypto is rapidly expanding its team of more than 80 employees globally and has deployed billions of dollars of capital across the crypto ecosystem.