Ken GriffinLucy Nicholson | ReutersKen Griffin, the billionaire CEO of hedge fund Citadel, defended his $2 billion funding in brief vendor Gabe Plo
Ken Griffin
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
Ken Griffin, the billionaire CEO of hedge fund Citadel, defended his $2 billion funding in brief vendor Gabe Plotkin’s Melvin Capital final month amid the peak of the GameStop mania.
“No, I feel Gabe Plotkin is without doubt one of the best traders of his technology,” Griffin instructed CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Field.”
The remark was in response to a query from Sorkin about whether or not Griffin’s funding was a mistake as a result of it created questions on Griffin’s motivations in propping up Plotkin amid his battle with retail Reddit merchants who have been pumping up the worth of GameStop.
“If I needed to run my enterprise on the opportunity of an insane conspiracy idea rising at any time limit, I’d don’t have any enterprise,” Griffin stated.
Apart from operating hedge fund Citadel, Griffin is the founding father of Citadel Securities, a market maker that handles about 40% of U.S. retail inventory order move, together with from brokerages like free-trading app Robinhood.
After information of the funding from Citadel and Level72 got here out, hypothesis abounded on social media platforms about Griffin’s potential position within the unfolding drama. In a now-deleted tweet, Twitch co-founder Justin Kan stated he “received a tip” that Griffin might have been concerned in Robinhood’s transfer to throttle entry to GameStop bulls.
Afterward, Robinhood defined that it was its clearinghouse, a behind-the-scenes market participant referred to as the Depository Belief and Clearing Corp., that had demanded billions of {dollars} in collateral to again GameStop trades, forcing the brokerage to cut back entry for its customers till it might increase capital.
Within the wide-ranging interview, Griffin additionally stated that there was “little doubt” that the quantity of quick promoting will likely be diminished due to the ability that Reddit-fueled retail merchants demonstrated with GameStop.