There are still a number of players in the HFT space that use JVM languages.

I think as with any space, if you really zoom into the details, you see a lot of diversity. You're obviously right in that people who are still hitting the CPU can't compete with people that do everything on FPGA, but it seems like there's still plenty of money to be made by people who are just a bit less fast than that.

I've heard people argue that they prefer being in that sort of space, too, as it gives them a bit more room to compete on their own alphas, and tends to be a bit less winner-take-all.