Wintermute Pivots $1B to AI Infrastructure as Crypto Volumes Drop 33%

Woofun AI reports that Wintermute is executing a strategic pivot beyond cryptocurrency, with founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy announcing a major expansion into traditional financial markets. The London-based firm aims to restructure its revenue streams by leveraging artificial intelligence to compete directly with established market makers in stocks and commodities.

The financial architecture of this transition involves a $1 billion investment in high-frequency trading and artificial intelligence data-center infrastructure over five years. This capital expenditure is funded entirely by retained earnings, supporting a goal to raise non-crypto revenue from 10% to more than 50% by the end of 2027. Gaevoy confirmed the privately held company was profitable in 2025 and expects to remain profitable this year, building on the $582 million profit recorded during the 2021 crypto bull market, according to Forbes.

Woofun AI data shows average daily trading volume fell to about $10 billion this year from $15 billion in 2025, driven by bitcoin declining to roughly half its October peak above $126,000. Despite this contraction, institutions accounted for a record 72% of spot trading volume on its over-the-counter desk in the first half of 2026. To compete with Jane Street, Citadel Securities, and XTX Markets—which trades more than $250 billion a day and spent €1 billion, or about $1.15 billion, on five data centers in Finland—Wintermute will use new infrastructure to train quantitative models. Gaevoy noted that competing in traditional markets requires more than reducing execution times by microseconds, as Jane Street also prepares to build its own data center.

Operational expansions include trading exchange-traded funds and perpetual futures tied to real-world assets in 2025, adding 24-hour exposure to West Texas Intermediate crude in March, and opening a prediction-markets desk in early 2026.

Furthermore, Wintermute's U.S. affiliate secured broker-dealer status last week, enabling it to trade stocks and stock options and act as an authorized participant for exchange-traded funds.