Wintermute to invest $1B in AI and high-frequency trading

Wintermute plans to invest up to $1 billion over the next five years to build artificial intelligence data-center infrastructure and upgrade high-frequency trading systems as it expands into traditional finance. The firm expects non-crypto trading to account for more than half of revenue by the end of 2027, up from about 10% today.

CEO Evgeny Gaevoy outlined that the capital will fund AI-ready data centers for model training and execution, and will upgrade low-latency networks, order-routing systems and execution software needed for high-frequency strategies. The program covers both hardware and software components.

The company plans to increase staff, doubling its 17-person New York office next year and raising global headcount by roughly 40%. Company materials describe the effort as a multi-year build-out to scale operations and support a growing pipeline of non-crypto trading opportunities.

Representatives did not provide a detailed timetable for specific projects or a regional breakdown of how the capital will be allocated. They confirmed the targets for staffing and business mix but declined to provide granular financial projections.

The expansion follows a broader pattern of crypto-native firms and exchanges adding tokenized traditional assets and related services. In March, regulators approved a pilot program to allow an exchange to trade tokenized versions of high-volume stocks, and an exchange announced a partnership with a tokenization platform to develop blockchain-based trading infrastructure for tokenized shares and exchange-traded funds.

Wintermute is one of several crypto trading firms pursuing traditional finance business lines as tokenization and hybrid trading models develop.