To avoid any legal repercussions, Millennium Management has urged its workers to disclose any personal cryptocurrency holdings to the firm’s compliance staff.
The action is the latest evidence that cryptocurrency has emerged as a subject of discussion — as well as a potential investment — among Wall Street’s most powerful figures.
According to a person acquainted with the company’s operations, the notification was the most recent in a series of such letters issued over the previous three years, according to The Block. The Financial News was the first to break the news of the latest disclosure.
Millennium was seeking to employ someone to oversee cryptocurrency investments in October of 2020, but the company dropped out of the market, according to a report from The Block at the time. Recently, the business has been increasingly active, with specific portfolio managers actively involved in a variety of crypto derivatives transactions.
Millennium continues to be a spectator in the market, while other hedge funds have increased their involvement, but Millennium remains on the sidelines. Former New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, who is worth an estimated $1 billion, has made a number of investments in the space through his company Point72 and other vehicles.
Dan Loeb’s Three Point Capital has also invested in cryptocurrency companies, notably CipherTrace, which was recently bought by MasterCard.
Millennium was created in 1989 by Israel A. Englander and is based in New York City. With the exception of cryptocurrency, the company includes teams working on a variety of strategies, including fixed-income, equity arbitrage, and quantitative methods.
