Anyone at Optiver have any insights on any crypto development?
I know that Optiver PSI (Their VC arm) just invested in Paradigm which is one of the leading RFQ platforms for crypto derivs. Does anyone at Optiver have any insight as to if they'll be expanding into crypto options MM in the future? I know Akuna does it, and a couple of other firms as well but Akuna was one of the first tradfi prop shops to get into options MM on crypto.
I attended a talk about "Life at Optiver" towards the end of 2021, a question did get brought up about expansion into the Crypto MM sector during the Q&A.
A trader responded by saying it would be an interesting sector to go into in the near future, however their current business is heavily ETF-related at the moment.
With regards to Crypto Market Making, firms in this sector have to take into account the crypto markets being open 24/7, so it may take some time for Optiver to build up capacity to recruit enough traders and developers to satisfy market demand in this sector.
That makes sense. I was the one who asked the question actually haha. I would assume by current business is heavily ETF-related you mean within the crypto sector since they are primarily an options MM not an ETF focused shop like old mission or flow. Since Optiver already has an office in Sydney and Chicago (Similar to Akuna) as well as an Office in Europe, all time-zones would be covered and typically traders who trade crypto are not specifically recruited for crypto but are just normal traders who want to trade the product with high volatility. So it's very confusing to me why they haven't expanded into it yet but I assume it's mainly just politics/regulations since smaller/more nimble firms have expanded or acquired crypto prop shops (Drw Cumberland)
Ah apologies, yes I meant about their options MM business (Flow Traders is probably more focused on ETPs rather than ETFs but I think the difference lies in what is contained within the product itself and they are essentially the same when it comes to hedging).
It isn't just the presence of other offices globally as these would cover weeknight trading windows. However these offices within Optiver generally do not involve operating on weekends at any global offices which would be an issue due to crypto exchanges being open on weekends too.
Optiver would likely need more staff from all departments to increase capacity to do this over these extended time periods, however this could potentially be a general opposition internally from upper management to enter the sector.
Wintermute is a Crypto MM firm where the founder was a senior trader at Optiver, it's just speculation rather than fact however maybe this trader left due to lack of initiative by Optiver to break into this thriving sector of finance?
This is generally speculation, if any senior traders from Optiver could advise further on this then that would be great.
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