A 25-year old former intern will run a billion-dollar crypto unit at Jump Trading Group

• A 25-year old former intern of Jump Trading will lead the firm's digital-asset division, according to a Tuesday announcement.
• Kanav Kariya's promotion to president was announced alongside the company's formal launch of Jump Crypto.
• Jump Crypto is the public-facing brand that has been six years in the making at Jump Trading.

A 25-year old former intern of Jump Trading will lead the high-speed trading firm's digital-asset division, according to a Tuesday announcement.

Kanav Kariya's promotion to president was announced alongside the company's formal launch of Jump Crypto, the public-facing brand for its digital asset project that's been six years in the making.

"Jump Trading has spent decades focused on building the infrastructure for high performance systems and technologies," said Kariya. "We're bringing that muscle to crypto and aim to meaningfully contribute to the construction of the 'plumbing and the railroads' necessary for widespread adoption of crypto."

Jump Trading's roots are in the open outcry pits of the CME but the firm has now grown to a research-driven quantitative trading firm with over 1,000 employees.

Kariya joined Jump as an intern while he was a student at the University of Illinois. The firm had a research lab at a facility near the school, and it was there that Jump's crypto effort originated. Jump hired Kariya in 2018 after he graduated, according to Bloomberg. As president he'll head up a team of more than 80 employees around the globe.

The 25-year old told Bloomberg Jump has pledged billions of dollars in capital toward crypto.

Jump Crypto builds software infrastructure for blockchain projects, while also actively participating in trading activities that "make global crypto markets more efficient," according to a company statement. The firm is a founding code contributor to blockchain projects like the Pyth network, where Jump provides pricing data on stocks, fiat currencies, commodities, and cryptocurrencies to DeFi developers.