Crypto keeps losing to Ken Griffin’s Citadel

Ken Griffin’s Citadel has purchased most of Situational Consciousness’ AI inventory portfolio at a reduction, a transfer that represents one other victory for the billionaire villain of the crypto business.

Certainly, regardless of years of criticism about Griffin’s conventional finance ways, the crypto business retains giving him extra property.

From a duplicate of the US Structure, fee for order move, fairness in a $40 billion crypto holding firm, and a brand new distressed portfolio of low-cost AI shares, crypto merchants are far too prepared to additional enrich the billionaire CEO.

Margin calls gutted former FTX Future Fund member Leopold Aschenbrenner’s AI hedge fund earlier this week, turning the 25-year-old right into a compelled vendor liquidated underneath a stack of self-imposed leverage to Griffin’s standing bid.

Griffin, in contrast to most crypto buyers, had loads of money amid Aschenbrenner’s misery.

The New York Occasions reported that Citadel gained the in a single day public sale for Situational Consciousness’ AI shares at a “appreciable discount” to market worth.

Crypto has watched this film earlier than.

Low-cost share certificates alongside an inexpensive US Structure

When the crypto business’s folks, tokens, or trophies land throughout the negotiating desk from Griffin, as a rule, merchants usually settle for his lowball supply. On the eleventh hour, a bit money is healthier than nothing in any respect.

Contemplate what occurred in November 2021 when ConstitutionDAO raised over $40 million of ETH to bid on a bodily print of the US Structure. Over 17,000 donors chipped in at a median of $206 apiece.

Their crowdfunded bid carried a deadly flaw, as Protos famous. Its stability sat on-chain in public view, so rival bidders like Griffin knew exactly the place their cash to bid would run out.

The DAO additionally reserved tens of millions for charges and prices that it couldn’t spend on bids.

Griffin gained the doc at $43.2 million. Sotheby’s irrevocable-bid mechanics trimmed roughly $4.2 million off his closing invoice. This spring, he purchased the one different privately owned first print, cornering the marketplace for the immensely helpful collectible, regardless of crypto’s try and decentralize it.

Thanks for the fee for order move

Fee for order move is a predictable revenue generator for classy market-makers and quantitative buying and selling firms like Citadel.

Each time a inventory brokerage or comparable platform affords commission-free or “$0 payment” trades, they usually interact in fee for order move on the backend.

Citadel Securities has accounted for over 40% of all US fee for order move in some years, and it’s pleased to just accept order move from crypto merchants who inefficiently smash purchase or promote with “market” orders.

In fact, retail crypto merchants additionally purchase shares and choices — the identical people who route much more fee for order move by way of Citadel.

On crypto trades, for instance, Robinhood discloses that market makers pay it $0.95 per $100 of orders routed. Its SEC filings determine B2C2, Wintermute, and Citadel Securities among the many firms paying for order move.

Ripple fairness, cheaper than its personal tokens

Contemplate one other instance of Griffin’s one-sided crypto dealings.

In November 2025, Ripple raised $500 million at a $40 billion valuation. Associates of Citadel Securities co-led the spherical.

Though the valuation appeared spectacular, Griffin wasn’t taking a lot danger. In truth, $XRP was buying and selling close to $2.35 the day of the announcement.

That day, Ripple held roughly 37 billion $XRP, a pile price about $87 billion that day.

In different phrases, Citadel purchased shares in an organization valued at lower than half its crypto holdings.

Along with his extremely discounted valuation, Griffin additionally obtained protections from the value danger of $XRP itself.

Bloomberg reported the high quality print that benefitted Citadel. Absent an IPO or sale inside just a few years, these Ripple buyers would have the proper to place their shares again to the corporate at a constructive annual charge of return.

Citadel’s rights additionally stand forward of current shareholders within the occasion of any liquidation.

In abstract, crypto has gifted Ken Griffin and Citadel an inexpensive portfolio of AI shares, an inexpensive Sotheby’s artwork piece, low-cost funds for order move, and low-cost fairness at lower than half its stability sheet.

Regardless of describing crypto in October 2021 as a “jihadist name” in opposition to the US greenback, it’s been paying him ever since.