Ken Griffin
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
Ken Griffin, the billionaire CEO of the Citadel hedge fund, last month defended his $ 2 billion investment in Melvin Capital from short seller Gabe Plotkin amid GameStop mania.
“No, I think Gabe Plotkin is one of the best investors of his generation,” Griffin told Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC on Friday during Squawk Box.
The comment answered a question from Sorkin about whether Griffin’s investment was a mistake, as it created questions about Griffin’s motivations in supporting Plotkin in the midst of his fight with Reddit retailers pumping GameStop shares.
“If I had to run my business based on the possibility of a crazy conspiracy theory coming up at any point in time, I wouldn’t have a job,” Griffin said.
In addition to managing the Citadel hedge fund, Griffin is the founder of the dominant market maker Citadel Securities, which manages approximately 40% of the US stock order flow, including through intermediaries such as the free trading application Robinhood.
Following the news of the investment at Citadel and Point72, speculation abounded on social media about Griffin’s possible role in the unfolding drama. In a deleted tweet now, Twitch co-founder Justin Kan said he “received advice” that Griffin could have been involved in Robinhood’s move to restrict access to GameStop bulls.
Robinhood later explained that it was the clearing house, a player behind the scenes, called the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, that demanded billions of dollars in collateral to support GameStop transactions, forcing brokerage to reduce its users’ access to could raise capital.
In the large-scale interview, Griffin also said that there is “no doubt” that the amount of missing sales will be reduced due to the power that Reddit-powered retailers have demonstrated with GameStop.