Citadel Securities, the market maker arm of Ken Griffin-led hedge fund Citadel, announced that VC firms Sequoia Capital and Paradigm made a $1.15 billion combined minority investment in the market maker, bringing its valuation to $22 billion. The partnership with Paradigm, a Web3-focused investor, signaled Citadel Securities’ shift toward new asset classes such as crypto.
Sequoia, which led the round with investment from Sequoia Heritage, Sequoia Capital Global Equities and its Global Growth Fund, will also get a seat on the Citadel Securities board of directors, filled by Sequoia partner Alfred Lin.
We are proud to announce that Sequoia and Paradigm have made a $1.15 billion minority investment in our firm. https://t.co/EIbWKduS1h
— Citadel Securities (@citsecurities) January 11, 2022
Related: Sequoia China leads $25M equity round for DeFi wallet DeBank
According to a statement, Citadel Securities will use the funds to further its growth of new products, markets and regions. Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao said:
“As technological innovation in financial markets becomes only more important, we see enormous opportunities to meet the needs of our clients across more markets and more products. Our partnership with Sequoia and Paradigm puts us in an even stronger position.”
Related: Ken Griffin says Bitcoin will be replaced by Ethereum-based currency
Historically, Ken Griffin has been a crypto skeptic, even claiming that crypto was “a jihadist call that we don’t believe in the dollar” only a few months ago. Despite the views of its parent hedge fund’s CEO, Citadel Securities is clearly embracing its expansion into cryptocurrency.
