Trading & Options · Profile from Trading and Options Research Companion
Jump Trading
The Chicago proprietary trading firm that two Deutsche Mark pit traders, Bill DiSomma and Paul Gurinas, founded in 1999 and turned into one of the fastest automated traders in futures, equities, FX and crypto. It trades only its own capital, has never published accounts and almost never gives interviews. Its story turns on speed as the edge — microwave towers across the Midwest and Europe, one of them a former NATO tower in Belgium bought in 2013 — and on the legal and reputational risk of moving outside the core. Jump Crypto, launched in Sep 2021, replaced the ~120,000 ETH stolen from the Wormhole bridge (Feb 2022, ~$320m at the time) and propped up TerraUSD when it lost its peg in May 2021. That second episode cost its subsidiary Tai Mo Shan $123m in an SEC settlement (20 Dec 2024), which found it had "negligently" misled the market about how the peg was held. The Terra estate's administrator sued for $4bn in Dec 2025 (reported). By 2026 Jump was back in the news for a different bet: market making on the prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket in return for equity (Bloomberg, Feb 2026, reported).
At a glance
- Founded
- 1999 in Chicago by Paul Gurinas and Bill (William) DiSomma, former pit traders who met in the Deutsche Mark futures pit at the CME (Wikipedia; MarketsWiki). MarketsWiki says the firm first traded as Akamai Trading LLC with a third partner, John Harada (who later founded Allston Trading), and was renamed Jump Trading in 2001 (wiki source — verify)
- Headquarters
- Chicago, Illinois; offices reported in New York, London, Amsterdam, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney and elsewhere (secondary career and directory sites — verify current list)
- Ownership / structure
- Private partnership-style firm owned by its founders and partners; trades only its own capital with no outside investors (MarketsWiki, secondary). Broker-dealer Jump Trading, LLC (CRD 106124), a participant of the Chicago Stock Exchange (now NYSE Chicago) since 22 Dec 2000 (NYSE Chicago order, 2019). Affiliates include Jump Crypto (Jump Crypto Holdings LLC; its subsidiary Tai Mo Shan Ltd was the SEC respondent in 2024), World Class Wireless (microwave networks), and the venture firm Jump Capital (Jun 2012)
- Leadership (2026)
- Co-founders Bill DiSomma and Paul Gurinas; Matt Schrecengost was COO at the time of the Nov 2010 CFTC meeting (Wikipedia, citing CFTC records); Kanav Kariya was president of Jump Crypto from Sep 2021 to 24 Jun 2024 (Bloomberg, The Block, reported). Current executive titles not confirmed — verify
- Business lines
- Automated trading and market making in listed futures and options, US and international equities, FX, fixed income; crypto trading, market making and infrastructure (Jump Crypto: Wormhole, Firedancer); prediction-market liquidity (2026, reported); venture investing (Jump Capital)
- Scale (dated, reported)
- No revenue, profit or capital figures are published and none are used here. Headcount estimates range from ~700 to ~1,300 (secondary directories, undated — unreliable). The May 2018 malfunction built "hundreds of millions of dollars" of short positions in one afternoon (NYSE Chicago order), a hint of the size of the equity book. Jump Capital had invested in 30 companies by Jan 2016 (Wikipedia)
- Regulators
- CFTC and NFA (futures); SEC and FINRA (broker-dealer); the exchanges' rulebooks (CME Group, NYSE, Nasdaq, Cboe); the SEC for the Tai Mo Shan crypto case; overseas regulators (FCA, MAS, SFC — verify entity-by-entity)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding from the CME pits (1999); microwave networks and the latency race (2010s); the 4 May 2018 algorithm malfunction and NYSE Chicago fine; the TerraUSD peg deal (May 2021) and Jump Crypto (Sep 2021); the Wormhole bailout (Feb 2022); the US crypto retreat and Terra litigation (2023–25); the Tai Mo Shan SEC settlement (Dec 2024); Firedancer (2022–25); Kalshi and Polymarket stakes (2026)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1999
Founding from the CME Pits
Founding / new strategy (automated proprietary trading)
2013
Microwave Networks and the Latency Race
Technology and infrastructure bet (microwave and millimetre-wave networks)
2018
Algorithm Malfunction and NYSE Chicago Fine
Rogue algorithm / control failure; regulatory action (settled)
2021
TerraUSD Peg Deal and Jump Crypto
Large trade or position / new market (crypto market making and token deals)
2022
Wormhole Bailout
Counterparty or operational event / restructuring or bailout
2023
US Crypto Retreat and Terra Litigation
Strategy pivot (scaling back US crypto) / regulatory and legal action
2024
Firedancer Solana Validator Client
Technology and infrastructure bet
2024
Tai Mo Shan SEC Settlement
Regulatory, enforcement or legal action (settled; failure)
2026
Kalshi and Polymarket Stakes
New market / equity for liquidity (prediction markets)