For most of a decade, Citadel Securities’ Ken Griffin rejected cryptocurrency. But on July 16, 2026, Citadel invested $400 million into the exchange Crypto.com at a $20 billion valuation. It was the first time Crypto.com had raised outside capital in 10 years, and it was aimed at bolstering its features supporting the trading of tokenized stocks and financial derivatives.

Does a big check written to an exchange do anything to boost the coins that trade on it, like Ethereum (ETH -1.76%), Solana (SOL -1.54%), or XRP (XRP -1.60%)?

Citadel Securities’ Ken Griffin. Image source: The Motley Fool.

This isn’t the first time Citadel has invested in a crypto business

In November 2025, Citadel Securities invested $200 million into the Kraken…