Overview
Keyrock is a digital-asset trading firm founded in Brussels in 2017. It makes markets, trades spot and options, and runs asset management and research.
As of March 2026 it trades on 85 centralised and decentralised venues, with a team of 220 across 37 countries. The hubs are Brussels, London, Paris and New York.
In March 2026 it raised a Series C led by SC Ventures, Standard Chartered's investment arm, at a $1.1 billion valuation.
Programmes
Keyrock has no rotational graduate scheme. Its early-career route is a six-month paid internship, and an internship can turn into a permanent role, though Keyrock does not promise one.
Every 2027 internship starts on 1 Mar 2027 in Brussels, with accommodation provided for all or part of it. London is possible if you spend your first 1-2 months onboarding in Brussels with the other interns.
You need to be studying for, or have recently finished, a degree in maths, computer science, engineering, physics, quantitative finance or a related subject. All four roles ask for Python, SQL and Git.
Quantitative Analyst Intern (HFT)
Sits on the strategic market-making desk. You study order-book data across venues, build backtests that model queue position, fees and latency, and measure spread capture and adverse selection.
DeFi Quant Research Intern
Researches on-chain market structure: AMMs, liquidity provision, MEV and gas, and how decentralised execution differs from an order book.
DeFi Quant Trader Intern (Credit)
Works on the credit desk, modelling yield, lending-pool utilisation, liquidation thresholds and protocol risk. It wants hands-on use of lending protocols such as Aave, Morpho or Compound.
Innovation Quant Developer Intern
Sits in corporate development, evaluating new Web3 technology, reading technical documentation and building prototypes and models.
Process
All four 2027 roles list the same selection process: an interview with Talent Acquisition, an interview with the hiring manager, then a recruitment challenge.
There is no online test, and no assessment day. One application goes to one desk, so pick the role whose skills you can show.
Keyrock says it wants a conscious choice to join the field and a crypto enthusiast who owns their work. Expect to be asked why crypto and why market making, and to show you use the markets yourself.
Recruitment challenge
Keyrock does not publish the challenge format. The postings all ask for something you have built yourself, such as an order-book study, a trading bot, a backtest or an AMM simulation, so treat the challenge as a practical task on the desk's own problems.
Each posting also asks you to present findings with their assumptions and limits. Whatever you build, be ready to say where the result could be wrong.
Interviews
The hiring manager tests the market knowledge the role lists. For the HFT and DeFi research roles that is:
- Limit order books: order types, maker and taker fees, matching and priority rules, spreads and depth.
- Execution: the order lifecycle from signal to fill, latency, queue position, partial fills, cancels, slippage and adverse selection.
- Spot against perpetual futures: basis, funding, margin and liquidation risk.
- Probability, statistics and time series, and reading noisy results without overstating them.
- DeFi: AMMs, concentrated liquidity, oracles, liquidations, gas and MEV.
Every desk asks whether an edge survives fees, gas, latency, slippage and adverse selection. Have a worked example ready where an edge looked good on paper and shrank after costs.
How to prepare
- Build one small project on real exchange data, such as an order-book snapshot study or a funding-rate backtest, and know its weak points.
- Get quick with Python dataframes and SQL. Polars is named in the HFT posting.
- Learn how perpetual futures funding works and why the perp price drifts from spot.
- For the DeFi roles, use the protocols. Provide liquidity on an AMM or borrow on a lending market so you can talk from experience.
- Build market-making intuition: quote a spread, take a fill, manage the inventory.
- Keep expected value and conditional probability fast.
Practise:Probability practiceMental math trainerFree reasoning testsDice Market MakingPremium
FAQ
Does Keyrock have a graduate programme?
Not a rotational one. The early-career route is a six-month paid internship starting 1 Mar 2027, which can lead to a permanent role.
Where is the Keyrock internship?
Brussels, with accommodation provided for all or part of it. London is possible if you spend your first 1-2 months onboarding in Brussels.
Is there an online assessment?
No. The process is an interview with Talent Acquisition, an interview with the hiring manager and a recruitment challenge.
Do I need crypto experience?
Yes, in practice. The postings ask for working knowledge of crypto market structure, and the DeFi roles want hands-on use of DeFi protocols.
Practise on TraderMaths
Practise probability and market making before the hiring manager interview. Related guide: Wintermute.