The trading firm Jump Trading has made the cross-chain protocol Wormhole its own independent business.
This comes at a time when the number of staff at Jump Crypto, the firm’s cryptocurrency arm, has been reduced by 50% since its peak of 150 in 2022, reports Bloomberg citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Jump had been slowing its crypto market activity since May in part due to U.S. regulatory uncertainty. In addition, the firm ended its years-long partnership with the trading app Robinhood in August, though on-chain data suggests the firms cut ties a month earlier. Robinhood saw crypto trading volume drop by 43% in the spring.
In early February 2022, hackers stole 120,000 ETH worth $323 million at the time from Wormhole. Jump Crypto stepped in to restore the lost funds a day later, The Block previously reported. The hack still remains the second largest exploit in decentralized finance history.
Jump Crypto was also affected by the collapses of the crypto exchange FTX and algorithmic stablecoin Terra. Jump Trading did not immediately respond to The Block’s inquiries or request for comment.
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