Hedge fund Millennium reminds employees to report crypto holdings

Millennium Management, a New York-based hedge fund managing over $57 billion in assets, recently instructed its staff to disclose any personal crypto trading to the firm’s compliance team.

The move is the latest indication of crypto become both a topic — and investment — of interest among Wall Street's largest titans. A source familiar with the firm's business told The Block that the disclosure was the most recent of several such notices over the last three years. The Financial News first reported the recent disclosure. 

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Millennium was looking to hire someone to lead crypto investments in October of 2020, but pulled back from the market, as The Block reported at the time. Recently, the firm has been more active with certain portfolio managers active across various crypto derivatives.

Meanwhile, other hedge funds have ramped up their interest in the market while Millennium stays on the proverbial sidelines. Steve Cohen — the billionaire owner of the New York's Mets — has made several investments in the space through his firm Point72 and other vehicles. Elsewhere, Dan Loeb's Third Point has backed crypto firms including CipherTrace, which was acquired by MasterCard. 

Millennium was founded in 1989 by Israel A. Englander. Outside of crypto, the firm has teams engaged in various strategies across fixed-income, equity arbitrage, and quantitative strategies.

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Frank Chaparro is Host of The Scoop podcast and Director of Special Projects. He also writes a biweekly newsletter. Chaparro started his career at Business Insider, where he specialized in the intersection of digital assets and Wall Street, market structure, and financial technology. Soon after joining Business Insider out of Fordham University, Chaparro was interviewing top finance and tech executives, including billionaire Mark Cuban, “Flash Boys” star Brad Katsuyama, Cboe Global Markets CEO Ed Tilly, and New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley. In 2018, he become a sought after reporter in the crypto world, interviewing luminaries such as Tyler Winklevoss, the cofounder of Gemini, Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, and Fundstrat head Tom Lee. For inquiries or tips, email [email protected].