From traditional market-making giant to core liquidity provider in prediction markets, SIG's forward-looking move into crypto

Author: Zen, PANews

From poker and horse betting to founding a quantitative trading firm, billionaire Jeff Yass established Susquehanna International Group (SIG) in 1987, starting with proprietary capital trading. Today, SIG has become one of the largest market makers in U.S. listed equity options, providing liquidity for equities and derivatives across more than 50 global markets.

In China's market, SIG is best known for its affiliate fund SAI (SIG Asia Investments), which participated in ByteDance’s angel round in 2012 and remains one of its major shareholders to this day.

Whether in investing or trading, SIG consistently demonstrates foresight. Over the past decade, SIG has gradually entered the crypto space—initially engaging in Bitcoin spot and derivatives markets, then providing market-making services on regulated exchanges through affiliated entities, and systematically investing across细分 sectors such as public blockchain infrastructure, DeFi protocols, and digital identity via investment platforms like SIG DT and SIG Venture Capital. In recent years, SIG has successfully backed prediction markets, emerging as a key behind-the-scenes player in this domain.

From Traditional Derivatives Giant to Crypto Participant

SIG began exploring Bitcoin-related trading around 2014, when it was invited to participate in early discussions about market-making for a Bitcoin ETF proposal.

Later, around 2016, SIG formed a dedicated cryptocurrency trading team, which had grown to about twelve members by 2018, executing over-the-counter agreements to trade millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin and other crypto assets. As early as 2018, Bart Smith, head of digital assets at SIG, publicly stated that the company already operated a dedicated crypto trading desk and viewed Bitcoin as "digital gold," believing that crypto assets and their underlying blockchain technology would endure and reshape financial services—an important signal of SIG’s long-term commitment to the sector.

Overall, SIG’s entry into crypto mirrors its traditional market DNA: first testing strategies and infrastructure with proprietary capital in OTC and exchange environments, then gradually expanding into more open, regulated, on-exchange liquidity provision.

In centralized digital asset trading, SIG’s confirmed market-making or liquidity provision partnerships are primarily with institutional-facing platforms that have clear regulatory pathways.

In 2022, TP ICAP announced that Susquehanna Digital Assets, a digital asset subsidiary under SIG, joined its Digital Assets Spot platform as a liquidity provider and market maker alongside Flow Traders, Jane Street, and Virtu Financial, offering electronic OTC quotes and execution for Bitcoin and Ethereum spot pairs.

Beyond this, SIG has long provided liquidity on multiple regulated digital asset and derivatives trading venues, though most of these collaborations have not been fully disclosed.

To better support its crypto operations, SIG underwent organizational upgrades by establishing Susquehanna Crypto, a digital asset trading firm headquartered in the Bahamas. The firm is registered with the Bahamas Securities Commission as a digital asset business entity and trades digital asset spot and derivatives—including futures, options, and perpetual contracts—globally using proprietary capital and heavily relying on automated trading algorithms.

From Behind the Scenes to Front Stage: Mastering Prediction Markets

Besides liquidity and market-making activities, SIG has recently placed special focus on emerging compliant platforms such as “prediction markets.” Prediction markets allow users to buy and sell contracts based on real-world events like election outcomes or economic indicators, effectively enabling bets on future results. These transactions are typically treated as event derivatives, similar to futures and options in traditional finance, but often involve non-traditional subjects such as politics and sports.

Due to regulatory restrictions, prediction markets were historically confined to gray areas or small academic platforms. However, in recent years, the U.S. regulatory environment has eased slightly, allowing prediction markets to move toward compliance and attracting attention from mainstream institutions. SIG positioned itself early in this space well before its rapid growth.

In April 2024, Susquehanna Government Products, LLLP, a subsidiary of SIG, became the designated market maker for Kalshi, the first regulated prediction market exchange in the United States. Approved by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Kalshi allows trading on outcomes related to economic data, weather, political elections, and other events. SIG established a dedicated trading unit within Kalshi to provide continuous two-sided quotes and deep liquidity.

Tarek Mansour, co-founder of Kalshi, said SIG’s entry as the first institutional market maker “changed everything,” bringing unprecedented liquidity supply to the prediction market. Through this partnership, SIG effectively addressed the chronic issue of insufficient liquidity in event contract markets, laying the foundation for Kalshi’s massive traffic surge. As of December 2025, Kalshi reached an estimated valuation of $11 billion in its latest funding round.

In November 2025, SIG further intensified its presence in prediction markets by announcing a joint agreement with U.S. online brokerage giant Robinhood to acquire up to 90% of the regulated crypto derivatives exchange LedgerX. LedgerX is a CFTC-licensed platform for cryptocurrency futures and options trading. It was formerly part of the now-bankrupt FTX exchange and was acquired in early 2023 by Miami International Holdings (MIAX) for $50 million.

This joint acquisition of LedgerX by Robinhood and SIG is seen as a significant milestone in both companies’ strategies for prediction markets and derivatives. Robinhood stated that following the deal, it will form a joint venture with SIG to launch an integrated futures and derivatives platform combining an exchange and clearinghouse. Leveraging LedgerX’s existing licenses and technology, the new platform is expected to begin operations in 2026, offering users compliant trading services for event futures and other derivatives.

Investment Strategy in Cryptocurrency

Beyond direct trading and platform operations, SIG and its affiliated investment entities have also deeply penetrated various segments of the crypto industry chain through venture investments and acquisitions. Known for its early backing of ByteDance, SIG maintains a low-key and pragmatic investment style, often holding positions long-term with an entrepreneur’s mindset. Its portfolio spans trading and risk management infrastructure, trading platforms, and data services.

1. Derivatives and Infrastructure

Pyth Network: In August 2021, SIG DT Investments (SIG’s digital asset investment arm) announced its participation in Pyth Network, contributing real-time price data for Bitcoin and other crypto assets. According to the official press release, SIG plans to progressively contribute more market-making prices for additional crypto assets as the Pyth network expands, aiming to support high-frequency, low-latency derivative applications in DeFi.

Hxro Network (Solana-based derivatives protocol): In 2021, Hxro, a derivatives liquidity network built on Solana, announced a $34 million strategic financing round.

Kadena (public blockchain infrastructure): In 2018, hybrid-consensus public blockchain Kadena announced a $12 million Series B SAFT round led by SIG and Multicoin Capital, aimed at scaling its high-throughput commercial blockchain and smart contract platform.

Infinity Exchange: In February 2023, London-based Infinity Exchange announced a $4.2 million seed round led by SIG DT and GSR Markets, targeting the development of a decentralized fixed-income and derivatives market incorporating traditional interest rate swap logic.

SynFutures: In October 2023, decentralized derivatives DEX SynFutures announced a $22 million Series B round co-led by SIG DT Investments, Pantera Capital, and HashKey Capital, to expand its multi-chain perpetual and futures markets.

These investments align closely with SIG’s preference for “price discovery, interest rate pricing, and risk management infrastructure.”

2. Identity and Credentials:

Accredify (blockchain-based verifiable credential solution): In 2023, Singapore-based digital credential platform Accredify raised $7 million in a Series A round co-led by iGlobe Partners and SIG Venture Capital, to scale its on-chain verifiable credential services for use cases such as academic credentials, medical records, and corporate registration data. This investment direction strongly correlates with traditional finance needs around KYC, compliance documentation, and anti-fraud measures, reflecting SIG’s emphasis on “data trustworthiness and identity management.”

3. Data and Research:

TokenInsight (crypto ratings and data services): In 2018, research and rating firm TokenInsight announced a multi-million-dollar Series A round led by Matrix Partners, with SIG Capital participating as an existing investor and joining the board. Since then, TokenInsight has provided token ratings, indices, and research data to numerous exchanges and institutions—functioning as a neutral information infrastructure serving the entire industry, echoing SIG’s longstanding focus on data and research in traditional markets.

4. Privacy and Identity Protocols:

zkPass (privacy-preserving identity and proof protocol): In August 2023, privacy protocol zkPass announced a $2.5 million seed round involving Binance Labs, Sequoia China, OKX Ventures, and SIG DT Investments, with funds allocated to pre-mainnet testnet development. By combining zero-knowledge proofs and secure multi-party computation, zkPass enables users to prove specific attributes (e.g., credit score or education level) to applications without revealing original documents—showing strong potential synergy with future compliant DeFi, on-chain identity, and credit markets.

5. Trading Platforms and Asset Management:

KuCoin (crypto exchange): In 2022, exchange KuCoin announced a $150 million Pre-Series B round valuing the company at $10 billion, with investors including Jump Crypto, Circle Ventures, IDG, and SIG.

TigerWit (FX / CFD platform): SIG previously invested approximately $5 million in TigerWit, an FX and CFD platform emphasizing blockchain technology, to support its adoption of distributed ledger technology in trading and settlement—one example of how traditional derivatives platforms are integrating blockchain.

Blofin (digital asset management firm): In 2022, digital asset financial services firm Blofin announced a $50 million Series B round led by KuCoin, with follow-on investments from SIG and Matrix Partners, to expand its quantitative trading and regulatory compliance efforts.

These investments reflect SIG’s traditional finance strategy of combining “brokerage/trading platforms + asset management + infrastructure,” simply extended to include cryptocurrencies and on-chain derivatives instead of equities and options.

Reviewing SIG’s public activity in recent years reveals several consistent characteristics in its crypto approach: a continued core focus on proprietary trading and market-making; engagement with DeFi centered on “infrastructure + data” rather than chasing trends; and a relatively cautious stance on regulation and geography. SIG’s positioning in the crypto industry resembles that of a “traditional derivatives market maker” expanding into a new asset class—not seeking visibility through hype, but steadily pursuing opportunities around liquidity, pricing, and risk control infrastructure in emerging markets.