Why Jump Crypto's Kanav Kariya Is Upbeat Despite Terra Fiasco
"For us, it's just thinking about the right opportunities as the market turns," Kanav Kariya said.
Twelve weeks and $1 trillion ago, Kanav Kariya had a question for thousands of people gathering in Spain to glorify cryptocurrencies: “Who the f**k is Jump?”
This was before crypto broke bad and then unraveled to worse. Before the spectacular collapse of Luna and TerraUSD, the digital currency that was supposedly safely pegged to the dollar. Before Bitcoin plunged into a vicious bear market and people began whispering about a “crypto winter.”
Before all that, Kariya, 26, was his relentlessly bullish self. Wearing flip-flops and an orange jacket, he regaled a conference in Barcelona about his crypto ambitions at Jump Trading, a normally hush-hush private firm that elbowed its way out of the hurly-burly Chicago commodities pits and into the “Flash Boys” realm of high-speed, electronic trading.
Today, despite everything, Kariya is still crowing. Speaking Wednesday from Jump's tech-chic Chicago offices -- white board, glass wall, green-velvet chairs -- the president of Jump's crypto business exudes a confidence that seems out of step with the doom and gloom elsewhere. Jump Crypto is hiring, not firing, he said. The place is hopping. The summer interns have arrived. Everyone feels energized.
“When markets get so volatile -- and we're seeing real craziness -- there is opportunity to really dig in and be differentiated,” Kariya said. “We are not exposed, we are not suddenly stuck in a bunch of illiquid positions. For us, it's just thinking about the right opportunities as the market turns.”
But that question from Spain still nags -- and not just for Jump, one of the world's biggest high-frequency trading firms.
The crypto mania that
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