Wintermute’s US license pulls a top global crypto liquidity provider onto Wall Street rails

One of the leading liquidity providers in the crypto space just made it to the US securities markets legally. On August 6, Wintermute announced that its New York-based company, Wintermute USA LLC, had registered as a broker-dealer with the SEC and became a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

According to Wintermute, the authorization marks its “entry into U.S. regulated markets” and boosts its capacity to accommodate “institutional counterparties in the region.” This is an important milestone for a market maker that has over $10 billion in average daily trading activity across 60-plus centralized and decentralized platforms.

Rather than operating only in crypto-native markets, Wintermute will be able to operate in regulated markets widely used by Wall Street institutions.

What the registration lets Wintermute do

The license restricts the use to proprietary trading. Wintermute USA will be able to act as principal and provide liquidity in over-the-counter transactions involving US equities, options, and any other security-based instrument while trading for its own account. It may also engage in self-clearing transactions involving securities using digital assets that exist in its portfolio.

The significance of the approval can be seen in the fact that Wintermute is now an Authorized Participant (AP) for exchange-traded products, which includes digital asset ETFs. The APs are responsible for the creation and redemption of ETF shares, thus, ensuring that the prices of the ETF and the value of underlying assets coincide. Thus, this role of Wintermute brings it closer to the market infrastructure that is involved in the development of crypto ETFs.

The UK-based company stated that the license obtained is a result of several years of working with American authorities.

Why a single regulated entity changes the market math

Receiving a broker-dealer license means more than just getting a new regulatory approval. Since both crypto and traditional securities activities are in just one company, making trades, settling transactions, and managing risks become simpler. This also helps institutional investors to gain access to both markets using only one common platform.

In addition, it leads to increased competition between market makers. The likes of Jane Street and Citadel Securities control liquidity in the equity and ETF markets, while Wintermute is known for its prowess in cryptocurrencies.

As tokenized securities and digital asset ETFs are becoming popular, the competitive advantage may be with the businesses that are able to provide liquidity both in traditional and blockchain-based markets than those which are specializing solely in one of the types of markets. That convergence could change how institutional capital moves between the two markets.

Apart from the Wintermute itself, the registration is indicative of the greater institutionalization of the cryptocurrency markets. As more licensed digital asset products enter the market, the market-makers who understand both traditional finance and cryptocurrency may become important players.

Their involvement may improve the liquidity of the market, lower the spreads, and enhance price-discovery processes, thus, creating favorable conditions for institutional investors to invest in cryptocurrencies.

“Our long-term conviction has always been that digital asset markets will evolve in more than one direction,” founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy said. “Digital assets and traditional finance will continue to develop in parallel, intersect in new ways, and ultimately integrate more deeply.”

The tokenization wave the license is built for

Wintermute’s move comes as tokenization gains momentum across financial markets. Citigroup’s Tokenization 2030: Wall Street On-Chain estimates roughly $17 billion in tokenized assets today and projects a $5.5 trillion base-case market by 2030. Meanwhile, a16zcrypto estimates tokenized real-world assets have already exceeded $34 billion, excluding stablecoins.

The momentum in the industry is now becoming evident. As has been reported earlier, the UK’s Tokenization Taskforce comprises notable figures from traditional finance as well as crypto-native companies such as Circle, Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken’s Payward entity, Chainalysis, Fireblocks, Digital Asset Holdings, GFO-X and Wintermute.

Their involvement indicates that regulatory authorities are beginning to consider blockchain-based finance system as part of the capital market’s ecosystem rather than as an alternative system.

Wintermute said that by securing broker-dealer registration, it “strategically positions Wintermute USA for the emerging tokenized securities landscape.” The registration is also in line with Wintermute’s broader objective of expanding into tokenized real-world assets.

Just a couple of months ago, the company started its OTC trading service for tokenized gold products like PAXG and XAUT, citing the growing demand for settlements using blockchain payments around the clock and for being able to move collateral in a more efficient way than before. It has been reported that the tokenized gold trend has the potential to develop significantly, reaching a minimum market value of $15 billion in 2026.

Regulators have already started to clear the legal landscape. In January 2026, three divisions of the SEC stated that securities are not exempt from legal liability just because they rely on a blockchain. Wintersmute’s actions indicate that the company intends to gain access to regulated markets before tokenized securities become mainstream.

If other key players on the international crypto scene follow suit, then the lines between Wall Street companies and crypto-centric providers of liquidity may continue to blur, thereby facilitating the fusion between traditional finance and digital asset markets.

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