VENUE FILE · filed 2026-09 · last re-checked 2026-09
Citadel Securities — the liquidity layer, one venue at a time
Citadel Securities LLC plays a significant role as a wholesale market maker and liquidity provider across multiple asset classes, serving institutional clients and retail brokers.
Citadel Securities LLC · Chicago, USA · evidence score 74/100
Licence, read on the register
| Regulator | Licence number | Jurisdiction | Tier | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEC/FINRA | CRD 116797 (SEC 8-53574) | USA | tier-1 | open source ↗ |
| SEC/FINRA | CRD 281102 (SEC 8-69663) | USA | tier-1 | open source ↗ |
Tier classification follows the same scale as the retail register: tier-2 means real supervision and client-money segregation, without an investor compensation scheme — never misread it as tier-1 protection.
The claims ledger
Claims specific enough to be falsified — and the ones that remain the venue's own measurement.
- 4testable claims
- 2venue-measured claims
- 0named data centres
- Global headquarters: 131 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60603 USA (firm's own locations page; verified via Wayback snapshot of citadelsecurities.com)
- BrokerCheck register: Citadel Securities LLC, CRD 116797, SEC 8-53574, status ACTIVE (FINRA BrokerCheck JSON)
- Firm timeline: electronic options market making launched 2002; #1 Designated Market Maker on the NYSE in 2016; institutional client base grew to over 1,000 in 2018
- Site business lines: Equities (including Designated Market Maker), Options, Fixed Income & FX, Corporate Solutions
Claims we cannot verify from outside
- 'Becoming industry leader in 18 months' and market-share percentages are the firm's own timeline claims
- Award claims (Risk Magazine, IFR, ETF.com) reference third-party publications not independently re-verified
Perimeter and coverage
| Asset classes | Venues | Connectivity | Clients accepted | Explicitly refused |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equities, Options, Fixed Income, FX | Institutional clients (over 1,000 by 2018 per firm timeline), Retail brokers via equity wholesale market making (over 40% retail equity market share by 2018, per firm timeline) |
A firm that publishes its own negative space — who it refuses, where it is not licensed — is materially easier to assess than one that doesn't. The refusal list is treated here as disclosure, not as a defect.
What the desk watches next
The follow-up plan attached to this file — each item re-checked on a future pass, dated and kept falsifiable.
- Self-measured market share claims
- Licensing tier implications