The Ledger / Alexander Gerko
Alexander Gerko
◼ Origin
Founded XTX Markets in 2015 after a career as a Deutsche Bank FX quant trader and head of FX trading at GSA Capital; built XTX into one of the world's largest algorithmic market-makers, posting record profits in 2021 and becoming the largest emerging-market FX provider in 2022.
◼ Self-Made Verdict — YES
Founded XTX Markets from scratch in 2015 using quantitative finance expertise; no inherited capital or prior institutional backing.
◼ Documented marks
01
Co-CEO of XTX Markets, which is one of the world's top 5 equity market-makers and the largest provider of foreign exchange in emerging markets, executing billions of dollars in trades daily without a human sales team.
02
Received over $1 billion in XTX dividends in 2022; XTX's business model extracts value from bid-ask spreads at scale using proprietary algorithms — critics argue this systematically disadvantages slower market participants.
03
XTX sued Mazars (Trump's former accounting firm) in 2022 after Mazars refused to continue working with XTX because of Gerko's Russian birth — a rare case of algorithmic trading reputational controversy intersecting with post-Ukraine sanctions politics.
04
Has invested in 60+ companies as an angel investor and donated $25M+ to Ukraine humanitarian relief post-2022 invasion.
No inheritance, or primary accounts documented for this billionaire yet.
◼ List of charges
No documented charges yet.
These are moral charges, not legal ones. The actual legal system has not — and will not — bring them.
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