Wintermute, a crypto market maker, plans to invest up to US$ 1 billion in AI data center infrastructure and high-frequency trading over the next five years, according to Bloomberg. The move is part of the company's expansion into traditional finance (TradFi).
Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy said the goal is to raise activity outside the crypto market to more than 50% of the business by the end of 2027, from 10% currently. The company also plans to double the staff at its New York office, which currently has 17 people, and expand its global workforce by about 40% in the next year.
Expansion into traditional finance
Wintermute is the latest crypto firm to move into the traditional finance market amid trading platforms' adoption of tokenized assets. Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken have already launched tokenized stock offerings, and Crypto.com announced on Wednesday its entry into the segment, with initial access to 1,500 stocks and underlying funds.
In March, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Nasdaq's pilot proposal to trade tokenized versions of high-volume stocks. On March 24, the New York Stock Exchange partnered with Securitize to develop blockchain-based infrastructure for stocks and exchange-traded funds.
