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Citadel Securities’ profits jumped nearly 70 per cent in the first quarter to $1.7bn, as the high-speed trading firm benefited from a surge of volatility across financial markets as Donald Trump took office.
The company reported net trading revenues of $3.4bn in the first three months of 2025, up 45 per cent from the same period a year earlier, according to a document seen by the Financial Times. Both revenues and profits were records for the market maker.
The boom in trading at Citadel Securities, founded by billionaire Ken Griffin, was mirrored across Wall Street when the series of executive orders Trump signed following his inauguration on January 20 sparked tumult across financial markets.
The group declined to comment.
Citadel and privately held rival Jane Street have become dominant players in options and equities trading on Wall Street as they have taken market share from big banks.
Their rise has been powered by investments in technology and the electronification of trading in markets, as well as reforms in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis that prompted many banks to retreat from their trading activities.
Miami-based Citadel Securities made its name in equities trading and now handles one in four of all US stock trades. Traditional banks such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase now make their fees primarily for handling a smaller number of more complex trades for hedge funds and asset managers, whereas market makers such as Citadel rely on extremely large amounts of trades that can be processed electronically.
During particularly volatile times when trading activity jumps, Citadel tended to gain market share, a person familiar with the matter said.
The firm, which is also a significant participant in the US Treasury market, has made clear its ambitions to expand to turf long dominated by banks. Michael de Pass, its head of rates trading, told the FT last year the firm wanted to be a “material player” in the European government bond market.
The company has tapped the ranks of traditional banks to help fuel its growth, including its hiring last year of Jim Esposito, a top Goldman Sachs executive who had spent nearly 30 years with the bank.
The first quarter of 2025 was marked by enormous market swings around announcements in the early months of the Trump administration. These volatile markets typically benefit banks and other trading firms as they lead to more buying and selling from clients.
Wall Street’s biggest banks took in almost $37bn in trading revenues in the first quarter, their best performance in more than a decade.
Citadel’s market-making business generated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of just under $2bn in the first quarter, up 56 per cent from a year prior. Citadel disclosed it was the 21st consecutive quarter the company traded more than $1bn.
Citadel executed more than 20 per cent of overall US equities volumes and said it was the number one US equity options specialist in the first quarter, according to the document. It also disclosed that it was the second-most active trading firm in US Treasuries by the volume of trades that it executed on Bloomberg.
The results follow a record 2024, when it generated $9.7bn in trading revenues, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Additional reporting by Ortenca Aliaj and Joshua Franklin
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