Jump Trading Lost Almost $300M in FTX’s Collapse, Michael Lewis Says in ‘Going Infinite’

This makes the trading giant one of FTX’s top creditors, Lewis wrote, citing documents from the crypto exchange’s former chief operating officer, Constance Wang.

AccessTimeIconOct 3, 2023 at 6:52 p.m. UTC
Updated Oct 5, 2023 at 3:44 p.m. UTC
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Large crypto market making firm Jump Trading lost nearly $300 million in the collapse of FTX, according to Michael Lewis’ new book “Going Infinite” about Sam Bankman-Fried and the failure of his crypto exchange.

The book says Jump was “near the top” of the list of FTX’s 50 “biggest accounts whose owners had been unable to remove their money from the crypto exchange,” Lewis wrote. Jump Trading lost $206 million while its affiliated trading firm, Tai Mo Shan Ltd., lost more than $75 million, according to the book, which cited documents discovered by Constance Wang, ex-chief operating officer of FTX.

A Jump spokesperson replied “no comment” when contacted by CoinDesk.

If accurate, the book underscores the heavy blow Jump endured when FTX collapsed in November. FTX filed for bankruptcy in November and in a court filing revealed that its top 50 creditors, excluding insiders, said they were owed $3.1 billion by the exchange. The largest single claim was $226 million, followed by a $203 million claim. The creditors’ names were redacted.

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Jump was also deeply involved in the failed blockchain project Terra, whose TerraUSD stablecoin and native token LUNA imploded in a spectacular fashion in May 2022, marking the start of a grueling bear market for crypto.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Jump was retreating from crypto trading in the U.S., while CoinDesk reported that trading platform Robinhood and Jump ended their partnership.

Edited by Nick Baker.

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Krisztian  Sandor

Krisztian Sandor is a reporter on the U.S. markets team focusing on stablecoins and institutional investment. He holds BTC and ETH.


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