Wall Street trading firms jump into cryptocurrencies

BITCOIN VOLATILITY is ATTRACTING TRADERS

Cryptocurrencies are digital assets that can be used to transfer value from one person to another, secured by cryptography. The controversial technology has struggled to gain traction among established financial firms. Last month Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, dismissed bitcoin as a “fraud” that was “stupid” to trade.

Jump Trading declined to comment on its trading activities.

Hehmeyer, led by a longtime Chicago futures executive Chris Hehmeyer, was advertising a job opening for a “crypto trade engineer” who has a “passion for cryptocurrencies and the role they play in global markets”.

“It is exploding,” Mr Hehmeyer said. “It’s a rapidly growing set of instruments, unlike anything we have ever seen. There are risks but we are cautiously in.”