Bloomberg
Wall Street Uses Old Tricks in $2.4 Trillion Crypto Jungle
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street traders like Trey Griggs are finding a new lease on life in the $2.4 trillion crypto Wild West.After two decades in energy trading, the 51-year-old was lured by a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. colleague this February into a new world of market-making in digital currencies.Now he’s in fighting spirits — unleashing old-school finance tricks to exploit the industry’s rampant inefficiencies, volatility and downright weirdness.“All the fun that used to be had 30 years ago in the commodity markets and is no longer fun — that fun is now in crypto,” says the U.S. chief executive officer at GSR Markets in Houston.Griggs is among crypto newcomers deploying systematic strategies that are tried-and-tested in conventional asset classes — price arbitrage, futures trading, options writing — in a booming new corner of finance. As more mainstream investors get behind Bitcoin, boutique firms are joining the likes of Mike Novogratz in an ever-broadening crypto rally that keeps breaking records.For those who can stomach the price swings, the threat of exchange hacks and the byzantine market structure, complex fast-money trades are offering an alternative way to ride the digital mania.At GSR, the firm’s bread and butter is market-making, where traders pocket the spread between buy and sell orders.In stocks, that’s a nearly oligarchic business where the likes of Citadel Securities…
