citadel

The cryptocurrency trading platform EDX Markets, supported by Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, and Fidelity, has applied for a national trust bank license from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).This license will allow EDX to provide services such as digital asset custody, asset management, and trade settlement, but will not include traditional banking activities like accepting deposits or making loans. EDX stated that obtaining this license will help it better serve institutional clients and gain a competitive advantage in the wave of institutionalization in the cryptocurrency industry. Recently, several cryptocurrency companies, including Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Paxos, and Fidelity Digital Assets, have also applied for similar licenses, indicating that the industry is accelerating its alignment with the regulated financial system.

EDXM International, a cryptocurrency exchange supported by Citadel Securities, announced plans to launch a perpetual contract product linked to the Korean won in April, directly entering the world's largest offshore Korean won derivatives market: the non-deliverable forward (NDF) market, which has an average daily trading volume of approximately $27 billion.The product is based on the offshore Korean won stablecoin KRWQ, issued by Brainpower Labs, registered in the Cayman Islands, in October 2025. Traders can bet on the KRWQ/USDC exchange rate by going long or short, with all transactions settled in USDC, avoiding the actual delivery of Korean won and circumventing South Korea's capital control restrictions. EDXM CEO Kai Kono stated that costs are 50% to 75% lower than traditional NDFs and support instant settlement.The South Korean Financial Services Commission did not comment on this. Some believe that if the product attracts significant institutional funds, the long-stalled digital asset legislative process in South Korea may face greater pressure.

According to The Block, earlier this month, BlackRock, Citadel Securities, and Apollo Global Management disclosed their plans to purchase DeFi governance tokens. BlackRock tokenized its treasury bond fund BUIDL on-chain through UniswapX and bought UNI tokens; Citadel Securities supported the launch of the "Zero" blockchain under LayerZero and acquired ZRO tokens; Apollo or its affiliates reached an agreement with Morpho to acquire up to 90 million MORPHO tokens over 48 months, accounting for approximately 9% of the total supply.Several investors told The Block that the motivation for these institutions to buy governance tokens is not to allocate them as part of their investment portfolio, but rather to secure access to infrastructure.In terms of future predictions, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan have been mentioned by several investors as the next potential entrants, with a focus on blue-chip projects related to stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, and trading infrastructure.

According to Fortune magazine, the cross-chain protocol LayerZero, supported by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Sequoia Capital, announced the launch of a new blockchain called "Zero," specifically designed for traditional finance, and has received support from several mainstream Wall Street institutions.The newly launched Zero blockchain aims to achieve a performance of processing 2 million transactions per second with a cost of less than one cent per transaction through breakthroughs in zero-knowledge proof technology, addressing the traditional financial system's demand for high throughput and low costs. The company plans to officially launch the network in September.Citadel Securities, ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood, and the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), have participated in the project as investors, partners, or advisors. Stablecoin issuer Tether and ARK Invest have also confirmed their investment in LayerZero.LayerZero co-founder Bryan Pellegrino stated that the introduction of these institutions with deep market structure experience aims to drive Wall Street's large-scale adoption of blockchain technology.

After hedge fund giant Citadel Securities submitted a 13-page letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suggesting that regulation of decentralized finance protocols handling tokenized securities should be strengthened, the industry responded on Friday with a joint letter, directly calling its arguments "baseless." The letter, co-signed by the DeFi Education Fund, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the Digital Chamber of Commerce, Orca Creative, attorney J.W. Verret, and the Uniswap Foundation, stated: "While we agree with Citadel on the goals of investor protection, market order, and the integrity of the national market system, we oppose their view that 'achieving these goals always requires traditional SEC intermediary registration and cannot be accomplished through well-designed on-chain markets in specific cases.'"Citadel Securities insists that DeFi protocols could operate as exchanges or brokers that require registration and regulation. However, the new SEC leadership under the Trump administration has been seeking to provide greater policy space for the crypto industry this year. White House crypto advisor Patrick Harker recently stated on social media platform X that his office supports "the necessity of protecting software developers and DeFi." "As we detailed in our opinion letter, Citadel Securities strongly supports tokenization and other innovations that can solidify the U.S. digital finance leadership, but this should not come at the expense of strict investor protections—these protections are what make the U.S. stock market the global gold standard," a company spokesperson stated in an email. The DeFi Alliance responded by pointing out that Citadel's letter contains "multiple factual inaccuracies and misleading statements." DeFi Education Fund spokesperson Jennifer Rosenthal suggested that the organization is defending its own business interests: "For Citadel, questioning the existence of a technology that threatens its business and significant market share is quite convenient."

Investment giant Citadel Securities submitted a 13-page letter to the SEC, suggesting that stricter regulations should be imposed on decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols handling tokenized securities. The DeFi industry responded last Friday with its own letter, stating that Citadel Securities' arguments are "baseless."In a new letter to the SEC co-signed by DeFi Education Fund, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), DigitalChamber, Orca Creative, attorney J.W. Verret, and Uniswap Foundation, it stated: "While we share Citadel Securities' goals regarding investor protection, market order, and the integrity of the national market system, we disagree that achieving these goals always requires registration like traditional SEC intermediaries, nor do we agree that in some cases these requirements cannot be met through well-designed on-chain markets."Citadel Securities believes that DeFi protocols may operate as exchanges or brokers that require registration and regulation. However, under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the SEC's new management has been seeking to provide more policy flexibility for the crypto industry. White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt also posted on social media platform X, stating that his office supports "the necessity of protecting software developers and DeFi."A spokesperson for Citadel Securities commented in an email: "As we detailed in our comment letter, Citadel Securities firmly supports tokenization and other innovations that can solidify the U.S. leadership in digital finance, but that does not mean sacrificing strict investor protection measures, which are what make the U.S. stock market the global gold standard."The DeFi Alliance's response stated that Citadel Securities' letter contains "multiple factual inaccuracies and misleading statements." DeFi Education Fund spokesperson Jennifer Rosenthal stated that the company is protecting its business interests. Rosenthal said, "Citadel Securities questioning the existence of a technology that threatens its business and significant market share is very much in its interest."

According to Cointelegraph, Citadel has sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), calling for increased regulation of tokenized assets and decentralized finance (DeFi).Citadel stated that the success of tokenized securities must be based on their own value, rather than relying on regulatory exemptions. Therefore, despite its support for the committee's initiatives aimed at promoting innovation and positioning the U.S. as a leader in the digital finance space, it is crucial to avoid crossing key investor protection measures when trading tokenized securities. Tens of millions of Americans rely on the U.S. stock market to secure their future after retirement, and they must continue to benefit from it.

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has received a $200 million strategic investment from renowned market maker Citadel Securities.This deal values the Wyoming-based exchange at $20 billion. Citadel Securities, a traditional financial market maker with nearly 25 years of history, views this investment as an important signal of the ongoing commitment of traditional financial giants to the digital asset space. The company, founded and led by Ken Griffin, is one of the largest market makers in the world. Kraken's co-CEO Arjun Sethi has previously emphasized that the exchange is dedicated to building a compliant operational system that meets regulatory requirements. This funding will primarily be used to accelerate its global expansion plans and further strengthen its integration with the traditional financial system.

ChainCatcher news, Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin submitted documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosing his personal holdings of a 4.5% stake in the digital asset vault company DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV), approximately 1.3 million shares of common stock, valued at about $600 million. DFDV primarily focuses on Solana (SOL) asset reserves and is currently the second-largest Solana vault company. Additionally, Citadel Advisors LLC and its affiliated entities hold approximately 800,000 shares of DFDV, accounting for 2.7% of the company.This disclosure makes Citadel one of the major institutional investors in DFDV and marks the traditional financial giant's further entry into the digital asset space. The documents show that DFDV accumulated $117 million worth of SOL within 8 days earlier this month and currently holds about 2.19 million SOL, valued at approximately $400 million based on market capitalization. Analysts believe that Griffin's move reflects that institutional investors are viewing crypto vaults as a new asset class, despite their valuations still being significantly affected by the volatility of the crypto market.

ChainCatcher news, the encrypted hardware design company Citadel Wallet has announced the launch of SuiBall, the first Sui native hardware wallet. The product was unveiled at SuiFest, with core features including "clear signing," designed to present all transactions in a human-readable format, thereby eliminating the security risks associated with traditional wallets' "blind signing."According to reports, SuiBall integrates with the Sui ecosystem, supporting all native Sui assets, DeFi platforms (such as Suilend, Cetus), as well as native Bitcoin and BTCfi products. Adeniyi Abiodun, co-founder of Mysten Labs, stated that SuiBall represents the next phase of the Sui device layer strategy. The product is now available for pre-order.

ChainCatcher message, encryption hardware design and development solution Citadel Wallet announced the launch of SuiBall at the SuiFest event. As the first hardware wallet natively supporting Sui, SuiBall is designed for the new generation of crypto users, providing secure, perceptible transaction clear signatures, replacing the common blind signing risks found in traditional wallets.At the same time, SuiBall not only supports native Bitcoin but also supports Sui ecosystem native assets, deeply integrated with Slush and the broader Sui ecosystem, further promoting the BTCFi development of the Sui ecosystem. Currently, the pre-order for SuiBall is open, and during the pre-order phase, a 35% discount is available. The original price of SuiBall is $229, now priced at $149. Users can visit the official website for more details.

ChainCatcher news, Arkham posted on social media that relevant addresses in the United Arab Emirates have now been marked.The UAE's $700 million Bitcoin holdings have now been annotated on the platform. These holdings originate from Citadel's Bitcoin mining operations—this publicly listed mining company is controlled by the UAE Royal Group through the International Holding Company (IHC).Arkham stated that the UAE is the fourth largest government entity holding Bitcoin on the platform, with a total BTC holding value of nearly $740 million. Unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, the UAE's Bitcoin does not come from police asset seizures but is generated through mining operations in collaboration with Citadel. To date, approximately 9,300 BTC have been mined, and at least about 6,300 BTC are still held.85% of Citadel's shares are held by 2pointzero, which is 100% owned by IHC. Approximately 61% of IHC's shares are held by the UAE Royal Group, which is controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family.By collaborating with Phoenix Group (a UAE-listed mining company) and the government-owned IHC, Citadel built an 80,000 square meter Bitcoin mining facility on Al Reem Island in Abu Dhabi in 6 months in 2022. Satellite imagery of the mining facility construction corroborates the timeline of on-chain mining activities. On-chain transactions between Phoenix Group and Citadel also match the officially disclosed amounts. Phoenix Group has also been annotated on the platform, with its BTC holdings valued at $3.2 million.

ChainCatcher news, according to TheBlock, the well-known Wall Street market maker Citadel Securities stated in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that tokenized stocks face resistance.Citadel urged the SEC to avoid exempting securities rules and instead focus on market liquidity and investor protection. The company is concerned that tokenized assets could siphon liquidity away from traditional markets and noted that investors are confused about who is issuing these assets.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Wall Street Journal, Telegram plans to issue at least $1.5 billion in five-year bonds with an annual interest rate of 9% to repurchase debt issued in 2021 that is set to mature next year. Investors include existing backers Blackstone Group, Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala, and newly joined hedge fund Citadel.Bondholders will have the option to convert their bonds into shares at a discounted price when Telegram goes public in the future. Despite CEO Pavel Durov being restricted from leaving the country due to allegations of not cooperating with a French police investigation, Telegram is expected to achieve a profit of $540 million in 2024, with monthly active users surpassing 1 billion and paying users exceeding 15 million.

ChainCatcher news, according to market news, Citadel Securities, the largest market maker on the NYSE with a market capitalization of $65 billion, hopes to become a liquidity provider for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, betting on President Trump's support for the industry.

ChainCatcher news, multi-strategy hedge fund Citadel founder and CEO Kenneth Griffin stated in an interview that he regrets not investing in Bitcoin early. He believes that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are "an intangible asset whose value comes from intangible factors." Part of it is a sense of community belonging, and part of it is a symbol of "anti-establishment." People derive a certain satisfaction from it.During this election cycle, the American people are saying, "I want to have control in my life," and cryptocurrency is part of that.Additionally, regarding Trump's economic policies, Griffin stated that tariff policies are not a major issue because "the BRICS countries will not detach from the dollar in the next four years." At the same time, Griffin believes that the independence of the Federal Reserve is very important for the dollar's status. "I have always publicly supported the opposition between Powell and Trump, not just in recent months, but for many years."

ChainCatcher news, according to Watcher.Guru, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin expressed that he regrets not buying cryptocurrency a few years ago.