Wintermute takes aim at Wall Street’s crypto ETF gatekeepers
Its new SEC-registered broker-dealer can pursue roles currently occupied by traditional market makers such as Jane Street.
Quick Take
- Wintermute USA secured SEC broker-dealer registration and FINRA membership, clearing a key U.S. securities-market hurdle.
- That status can let Wintermute serve as an authorized participant for digital asset ETPs and trade securities for itself.
- But it has not named an ETF issuer or disclosed the DTC and distributor agreements APs usually need.
Crypto trading giant Wintermute has secured a crucial foothold in US securities markets, clearing a major regulatory hurdle to serving as an authorized participant for digital asset exchange-traded products.
On Aug. 6, the firm announced that its subsidiary, Wintermute USA LLC, is now registered as a broker-dealer with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has gained membership with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Wintermute is a major crypto market maker that facilitates over $10 billion in average daily trading volume and provides liquidity across more than 60 centralized and decentralized exchanges globally.
Evgeny Gaevoy, Founder and CEO of Wintermute, said:
“Digital assets and traditional finance will continue to develop in parallel, intersect in new ways, and ultimately integrate more deeply. As the landscape evolves, the firms that succeed will be those that have technical and operational know-how to operate in both.”
Wintermute is bridging the TradFi gap
This development would allow the proprietary-trading entity to trade equities and equity options for its own account, provide liquidity to exchanges and over-the-counter markets, and serve as an authorized participant for exchange-traded products, including those tied to digital assets. It also gained the ability to self-clear digital asset securities transactions for its own account.
The registration does not include customer brokerage or custody services, and Wintermute has yet to name an ETF issuer that has officially appointed it as an authorized participant.
The new license closes a significant gap in Wintermute’s expanding institutional business.
Its global arm, Wintermute Trading Ltd., already supplies crypto liquidity for products such as Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, while firms including Jane Street Capital and Virtu Americas occupy the authorized-participant role, submitting creation and redemption orders directly with the fund.
Notably, Wintermute has also built experience at another intersection of crypto and regulated securities.
The firm is among the whitelisted market participants providing competitive quotes for swaps involving BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized money-market fund through UniswapX, allowing eligible investors to exchange BUIDL for USDC.
Those existing roles mean Wintermute already provides liquidity around both crypto ETFs and tokenized securities.
With its SEC and FINRA approvals, Wintermute USA now has a regulated securities vehicle that can compete with traditional market-making firms for a larger role in the ETF ecosystem.
Meanwhile, that opportunity has further expanded since the SEC approved in-kind creations and redemptions for Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded products in July 2025.
The change allows authorized participants to deliver or receive the underlying crypto assets rather than relying solely on cash, increasing the value of infrastructure that bridges traditional securities and digital asset markets.
Wintermute is positioned across both sides of that divide. The group already operates as a major crypto liquidity provider, while its new US broker-dealer gives it a regulated vehicle for trading securities and participating more directly in ETF infrastructure.
Still, SEC registration and FINRA membership clear only part of the path. Authorized participants generally must also be Depository Trust Company participants and enter into fund-specific agreements with a distributor.
Wintermute has not yet disclosed such an agreement, leaving an issuer appointment as the next concrete signal that its new US regulatory status has translated into a larger role in the ETF market.
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