(Bloomberg) -- A pair of former Citadel Securities employees are making public a market-making firm for cryptocurrencies they founded with the backing of $50 million from venture capitalists.

Leonard Lancia, Citadel Securities’ former head of Europe systematic market making for derivatives, and Alex Casimo, who was with the firm’s business-management team in Europe, founded Portofino Technologies in April 2021. Since then, the company has traded billions of dollars in so-called stealth mode, the executives said in an interview. 

Coatue Management, Valar Ventures and Global Founders Capital are among Portofino’s venture-capital backers. Based in Zug, Switzerland, it has 35 employees, including in London, Singapore and New York, and aims to expand to 50 by the end of the year. The founders declined to disclose valuation or performance figures. 

Portofino provides crypto liquidity to financial institutions and high-net-worth individuals, trading on both centralized and decentralized exchanges and over the counter. It also gives advice and technical support for web3 startups seeking to list their assets on exchanges. 

This year’s crypto winter has created a challenging environment for market makers, which are dealing with lower trading volumes and fewer arbitrage opportunities. The cost of borrowing has also increased, making hedging more expensive. Casimo, Portofino’s chief operating officer, said the firm can compete on pricing with bigger players on the most popular trading pairs using its proprietary algorithms and automated inventory management. 

Longer-term, the company aims to be more than a crypto market-maker by supporting new services and industries entering web3. 

“In five years, 10 years from now, if you believe in the narrative of the tokenized economy, what you will see is that any small business could issue tokens that have some sort of utility or engagement,” said Lancia, who is Portofino’s chief executive officer. 

In those situations, he said, the liquidity provider will have a role in “supporting things that are smaller, connecting potentially local businesses to local people.”

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