Crypto market maker Wintermute plans to invest $1B in AI infrastructure and high-frequency trading over five years, targeting over 50% of revenue from non-crypto markets by end-2027.
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Crypto market maker Wintermute plans to invest up to $1 billion over the next five years in artificial intelligence data center infrastructure and high-frequency trading.
The London-based firm's CEO Evgeny Gaevoy outlined the plans to Bloomberg on Aug. 12.
Where Wintermute Is Heading and Why
Wintermute currently derives about 10% of its business from non-crypto markets. Gaevoy said the firm wants that figure to exceed 50% of total revenue by the end of 2027. The expansion will target stocks, commodities, and foreign exchange. Wintermute plans to fund the full investment from retained earnings rather than outside capital. Gaevoy said the firm was profitable in 2025 and expects to remain profitable in 2026, without providing specific figures. Wintermute recorded $582 million in profit during the 2021 crypto bull market, according to Forbes.
The push into traditional finance comes as Wintermute's crypto activity has slowed. The firm's average daily trading volume fell to about $10 billion in 2026 from $15 billion in 2025. That decline followed Bitcoin's drop to roughly half its October peak above $126,000. Despite the volume decline, institutions accounted for a record 72% of spot trading volume on Wintermute's over-the-counter desk in the first half of 2026.
Wintermute's US affiliate secured broker-dealer status last week. That status allows it to trade stocks and stock options and act as an authorized participant for ETFs. The firm began trading ETFs and perpetual futures tied to real-world assets in 2025, added 24-hour exposure to West Texas Intermediate crude in March, and opened a prediction-markets desk in early 2026.
AI Infrastructure, Headcount, and Industry Context
The $1 billion investment will go toward training quantitative models on large volumes of market data and expanding computing, storage, and networking capacity. Gaevoy said competing in traditional markets requires more than cutting execution times by microseconds. Wintermute will also double the staff in its 17-person New York office in 2027 and expand its global headcount by about 40%.
The firm's planned spending puts it in direct competition with established players including Jane Street, Citadel Securities and XTX Markets. XTX, which trades more than $250 billion a day, announced plans last year to spend €1 billion (about $1.15 billion) on five data centers in Finland. Jane Street is also preparing to build and finance its own data center.
Related Article:Is Bitcoin Price Finally Decoupling From Tech Stocks?
Wintermute's expansion reflects a broader trend of crypto-native firms moving into tokenized traditional assets. Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance have all launched tokenized stock offerings. Crypto(dot)com announced its own entry into that space on Aug. 12 with initial access to 1,500 underlying stocks and funds. On the institutional side, the SEC approved Nasdaq's pilot proposal in March to support trading in tokenized versions of high-volume stocks. On March 24, the New York Stock Exchange partnered with tokenization platform Securitize to develop blockchain-based trading infrastructure for tokenized shares and ETFs.
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