Wall Street traders are pulling money out of the stock market, and cryptocurrencies are letting them retire early

Wall Street traders Mike Komaransky and Chase Lochmiller have made huge financial returns from trading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. They have already withdrawn their funds from the stock market. In fact, according to CNBC, many stock traders have withdrawn a large amount of funds from the stock market.

It is reported that the transformation of one of the traders, Komaransky, was very successful. He even announced that he would retire early this summer when he was 38 years old.

On June 30, 2017, Komaransky tweeted:

After 16 years of trading, today is my last day with Cumberland and DRW. Good luck to all my colleagues and I hope you all are doing well.

How Komaransky discovered Bitcoin

Komaransky became interested in Bitcoin after reading a 2010 article on the digital currency by George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen, who was working in London at the time.

In late 2013, Bitcoin began to soar, followed by the collapse of Mt. Gox, a major Bitcoin exchange.

As the price of Bitcoin continued to rise, Don Wilson, founder and CEO of high-frequency trading firm DRW Holdings, appointed Komaransky to establish cryptocurrency trading subsidiary Cumberland Mining in 2014.

Cumberland Mining has used bitcoin’s volatility to facilitate some notable deals, such as acquiring a large portion of the tokens that were auctioned off by the U.S. Marshals Service, which had seized them from black market operator Ross Ulbricht and his illegal online marketplace Silk Road.

Cumberland Mining’s continued success has made it the largest digital currency market maker. The company currently has 12 employees and mainly trades cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Lochmiller's Story

Lochmiller has worked at high-frequency trading firms on Wall Street for the past decade, such as Jump Trading and Getco. He quit Jump Trading in July 2017 and joined hedge fund Polychain Capital, which mainly trades virtual currencies such as Tezos and Ethereum.