susquehanna one of the largest etf trading firms opens bitcoin trading creditmark makela for the new york timesjune 5 2018san francisco while a number of large financial institutions have discussed trading bitcoin one firm has already begun doing it very quietlythe financial firm susquehanna international group in bala cynwyd pa just outside philadelphia is one of the largest players in trading traditional investments like stocks options and exchange traded funds or etfs over the last two years the privately owned company has also built up a trading desk of around a dozen people that buys and sells millions of dollars worth of bitcoin and other virtual or cryptocurrencies in private dealsnow the firm is opening trading to a small group of its 500 clients with plans to expandthe move is the latest sign that the virtual currency markets which were once relegated to the fringes of the financial world are being embraced by big mainstream investorsthe parent company of the new york stock exchange the intercontinental exchange has been in talks about opening a subsidiary for cryptocurrency trading and goldman sachs is on the verge of opening its own trading operationbut susquehanna which has around 1800 employees around the world has a lot more money backing its trading desk and a lot more ability to interact with clients than the hedge funds and trading firms that have also been early participants in the virtual currency marketsthe arrival of big financial institutions has raised concerns among some bitcoin aficionados who worry that it will harden bitcoins status as a speculative trading asset like gold and diminish hopes that it can be used in daytoday transactionsnot so said bart smith the head of the digital asset group at susquehanna the firm believes that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies inspired by it are likely to have a wide array of uses but for now he said bitcoins best bet is to challenge gold as a scarce commodity that can be moved around more easilythe original bitcoin software determined that only 21 million bitcoin would ever be created that cap isnt expected to be hit until 2140 and the limited number of tokens currently in circulation has made the online currency appealing as a commoditymr smith said that he could also imagine bitcoin or some competitor becoming a digital payment method for the internet as jack dorsey twitters chief executive recently predicted but that he wasnt too worried if that didnt happenwe believe that this technology and this asset class is going to change some facet of financial services and we think it is going to exist forever he saidsusquehanna first experimented with trading bitcoin in 2014 after the investor twins cameron and tyler winklevoss asked the firm about being involved with a bitcoin etf that they had applied to regulators to createregulators eventually denied that application but susquehanna kept its one bitcoin trader on board and then added a few more last year when the cryptocurrency markets took offthe firm decided to step up