Cryptocurrencies
Crypto Billionaire Rankles Wall Street Titans With Derivatives Plan
- FTX’s Bankman-Fried wants algorithms to clear margin trades
- Proposal draws pushback from execs including CME’s Terry Duffy
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At a posh financial-industry gathering known for swaying palm trees and late-night yacht parties, this year’s main attraction was a face-off between a crypto billionaire and a futures-exchange kingpin.
There was Sam Bankman-Fried, whose FTX platform has rapidly become a dominant venue for investing in virtual coins, going toe-to-toe with Terry Duffy, the longtime chief executive officer of CME Group Inc. at the event in Florida. Among the topics broached in their intense conversation was an FTX proposal to execute every aspect of customers’ crypto derivatives trades on its own -- thus bypassing other exchanges, banks and financial intermediaries.