{"id":9271,"date":"2026-08-01T02:18:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T23:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/01\/crypto-keeps-losing-to-ken-griffins-citadel\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T02:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T23:18:28","slug":"crypto-keeps-losing-to-ken-griffins-citadel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/01\/crypto-keeps-losing-to-ken-griffins-citadel\/","title":{"rendered":"Crypto keeps losing to Ken Griffin\u2019s Citadel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ken Griffin\u2019s Citadel has bought<\/a> most of Situational Awareness\u2019 AI stock portfolio at a discount, a move that represents another victory for the billionaire villain of the crypto industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, despite years of criticism about Griffin\u2019s traditional finance tactics, the crypto industry keeps giving him more assets.<\/p>\n

From a copy of the US Constitution, payment for order flow, equity in a $40 billion crypto holding company, and a new distressed portfolio<\/a> of cheap AI stocks, crypto traders are far too willing to further enrich the billionaire CEO.<\/p>\n

Margin calls gutted former FTX Future Fund member Leopold Aschenbrenner\u2019s AI hedge fund earlier this week, turning the 25-year-old into a forced seller liquidated under a stack of self-imposed leverage to Griffin\u2019s standing bid.<\/p>\n

Griffin, unlike most crypto investors, had plenty of cash amid Aschenbrenner\u2019s distress. <\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that Citadel won the overnight auction for Situational Awareness\u2019 AI stocks at a \u201cconsiderable reduction\u201d to market value. <\/p>\n

Crypto has watched this movie before.<\/p>\n

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wait wait wait\u2026 two days ago ken griffin\/citadel randomly came out and declared the fed will raise rates, causing semis\/ai the get absolutely destroyed into extreme pressure on leopold and SA causing them to liquidate their ENTIRE public equities book through a transaction with\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/M5D8EnHN1o<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 threadguy (@notthreadguy) July 30, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Cheap share certificates alongside a cheap US Constitution<\/h2>\n

When the crypto industry\u2019s people, tokens, or trophies land across the negotiating table from Griffin, more often than not, traders often accept his lowball offer. At the eleventh hour, a little cash is better than nothing at all.<\/p>\n

Consider what happened in November 2021 when ConstitutionDAO raised<\/a> over $40 million of ETH to bid on a physical print of the US Constitution. Over 17,000 donors chipped in at a median of $206 apiece.<\/p>\n

Their crowdfunded bid carried a fatal flaw, as Protos noted<\/a>. Its balance sat on-chain in public view, so rival bidders like Griffin knew precisely where their money to bid would run out.<\/p>\n

The DAO also reserved<\/a> millions for fees and costs that it couldn\u2019t spend on bids.<\/p>\n

Griffin won<\/a> the document at $43.2 million. Sotheby\u2019s irrevocable-bid mechanics trimmed<\/a> roughly $4.2 million off his final bill. This spring, he bought<\/a> the only other privately owned first print, cornering the market for the immensely valuable collectible, despite crypto\u2019s attempt to decentralize it.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the payment for order flow<\/h2>\n

Payment for order flow is a predictable profit generator for sophisticated market-makers and quantitative trading companies like Citadel.<\/p>\n

Whenever a stock brokerage or similar platform offers commission-free or \u201c$0 fee\u201d trades, they often engage in payment for order flow on the backend.<\/p>\n

Citadel Securities has accounted<\/a> for over 40% of all US payment for order flow in some years, and it\u2019s happy to accept order flow from crypto traders who inefficiently smash buy or sell with \u201cmarket\u201d orders.<\/p>\n

Of course, retail crypto traders also buy stocks and options \u2014 the same folks who route even more payment for order flow through Citadel.<\/p>\n

On crypto trades, for example, Robinhood discloses<\/a> that market makers pay it $0.95 per $100 of orders routed. Its SEC filings identify<\/a> B2C2, Wintermute, and Citadel Securities among the companies paying for order flow.<\/p>\n

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Short squeeze target Citadel wants to be a cryptocurrency market maker<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Read more: Ken Griffin wants the SEC to follow Citadel\u2019s advice about DeFi<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Ripple equity, cheaper than its own tokens<\/h2>\n

Consider another example of Griffin\u2019s one-sided crypto dealings.<\/p>\n

In November 2025, Ripple raised<\/a> $500 million at a $40 billion valuation. Affiliates of Citadel Securities co-led the round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the valuation seemed impressive, Griffin wasn\u2019t taking much risk. In fact, XRP was trading near $2.35 the day of the announcement.<\/p>\n

That day, Ripple held<\/a> roughly 37 billion XRP, a pile worth about $87 billion that day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other words, Citadel bought shares in a company valued at less than half its crypto holdings.<\/p>\n

In addition to his incredibly discounted valuation, Griffin also received protections from the price risk of XRP itself.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg<\/em> reported<\/a> the fine print that benefitted Citadel. Absent an IPO or sale within a few years, those Ripple investors would have the right to put their shares back to the company at a positive annual rate of return.<\/p>\n

Citadel\u2019s rights also stand ahead of existing shareholders in the event of any liquidation.<\/p>\n

In summary, crypto has gifted Ken Griffin and Citadel a cheap portfolio of AI stocks, a cheap Sotheby\u2019s art piece, cheap payments for order flow, and cheap equity at less than half its balance sheet.<\/p>\n

Despite describing<\/a> crypto in October 2021 as a \u201cjihadist call\u201d against the US dollar, it\u2019s been paying him ever since.<\/p>\n

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via\u00a0Protos Leaks<\/em><\/a>. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on\u00a0X<\/a>,\u00a0Bluesky<\/em><\/a>, and\u00a0Google News<\/em><\/a>, or subscribe to our\u00a0YouTube<\/em><\/a>\u00a0channel.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Crypto keeps losing to Ken Griffin\u2019s Citadel<\/a> appeared first on Protos<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ken Griffin\u2019s Citadel has bought most of Situational Awareness\u2019 AI stock portfolio at a discount, a move that represents another victory for the billionaire villain of the crypto industry. Indeed, despite years of criticism about Griffin\u2019s traditional finance tactics, the crypto industry keeps giving him more assets. From a copy of the US Constitution, payment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-invest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}