An added layer of regulatory scrutiny has resulted in top crypto market makers scaling back on digital asset trading in the U.S.
According to a report from Bloomberg on Tuesday, Jump Crypto and Jane Street are pulling back from the U.S. market amid the regulatory uncertainty that has made it difficult to do business and maintain internal standards.
Although Jump Crypto is retreating from the U.S., the firm is expanding its operations globally. Meanwhile, Jane Street is curtailing its crypto ambitions globally, according to people familiar with the matter.
Both firms will continue making markets albeit on a much smaller scale, the people said.
The effects of these players phasing down their market activity might already be in play. At around 09:26 UTC on Tuesday, Bitcoin began trading at a premium on Binance.US. The BTC/USD pair was trading $700 higher than the same pair on Coinbase, Kraken and other exchanges.
Binance US MM taking a mental health break.
BTC, ETH trading 3% higher than the rest of the market. pic.twitter.com/3spRCfOOYT
— Hsaka (@HsakaTrades) May 8, 2023
“My hunch is Binance getting forced out of US market in CFTC settlement and continuing the rotation from BUSD->BTC->USDT that I said was driving up the market to reallocate funds cross entity,” tweeted Adam Cochran, partner at Cinneamhain Ventures.
“Explains the inflated USD, the heavy selling on BTC, Binance’s own large BTC moves and the heavy concentration of skew on Binance US right now,” he added.
In March, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) brought an enforcement action against Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), alleging that the firm violated trading and derivatives laws. The commodities regulator further alleged that Binance aided U.S. customers in circumventing compliance controls in order to access the international exchange.