Citadel Securities‘ global head of business development, Jamil Nazarali, quit his position to lead a joint venture firm aiming to increase investors’ access to crypto.
The venture firm is a joint effort between asset management firms Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial. The venture firm will perform like a crypto trading ecosystem and is expected to go live in late 2022 or early 2023. However, Nazarali will start his new position next week.
The CEO of Citadel Securities, Peng Zhao, announced Nazarali’s new position and said:
“Under Jamil’s leadership, this new marketplace will bring together the best of what is new in crypto with what has been proven to create better outcomes in traditional markets,”
Under Nazarali’s leadership, the new venture capital is looking to aid institutional investors in understanding the ecosystem and having confidence in the crypto market.
Launching a venture capital in the bear market
The firms are determined, yet cautious when launching their new venture capital in the current market conditions.
Both firms agree that the bear market is not the end of crypto. The CEO of Virtu Finance especially said that he didn’t have an opinion on crypto, and actually didn’t need one either. He said that there is an intense demand for crypto, especially from the retail side. This is a strong enough sign for Virtu Finance to enter the crypto market.
Zhao, on the other hand, thinks that the instability in the crypto market is not a result of changing demand for crypto. He argues that the risks of the crypto market emerge due to a lack of regulation. Since the regulations are expected in the near future, Zhao sees no problem entering the field early on. He said:
“Challenges and risks involved in participating in today’s crypto markets as a result of regulatory uncertainty, conflicts of interest, inconsistent asset safekeeping and poor vetting of counterparties,”
Virtu Finance and Citadel Securities are not the only firms that feel bearish about investing in the crypto market. Crypto exchange Gemini’s founders the Winklevoss twins talked about increasing their investments in start-ups last month, right after the LUNA crash. Even though they admitted that most of their investments won’t survive the winter, the twins expect significant returns from the ones that do.
The best time to invest
Some think that this is the best time to invest in crypto, despite the drastic effects of the bear market.
According to Blockworks‘ founder Jason Yanowitz, the bottom of the bear market is the best time to invest in crypto. Yanowitz recently described the three stages of the bear market, saying that the ones who don’t leave crypto in the current stage will be rewarded in the future.
He advised the community to remember why they started and said:
“If you’re a company, do whatever it takes to get through. If you’re a builder, stay interested. Find other builders. Buidl with them. If you’re an investor, develop your own theses. Take bets on people you believe in.”
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