Regulated U.S. Market Access

Wintermute has expanded its U.S. footprint after its affiliate Wintermute USA LLC registered as a broker-dealer with the Securities and Exchange Commission and became a FINRA member.

The move gives the digital-asset market maker a regulated path into U.S. securities-market activity. Wintermute said the New York-based affiliate will operate as a proprietary trading firm, provide liquidity to national securities exchanges and over-the-counter counterparties, and focus on ETP services.

The company said the registration allows Wintermute USA to trade traditional equities and equity options, act as an authorized participant for exchange-traded products including digital-asset-linked products, and self-clear digital asset securities transactions for its own account. The release also notes that FINRA membership should not be read as a regulator endorsement.

For Wintermute, the license is less about retail brokerage and more about positioning for market structure that increasingly blends crypto trading, ETF liquidity, and tokenized securities. The broader Wintermute group says it handles more than $10 billion in average daily trading volume across more than 60 centralized and decentralized venues, but the U.S. broker-dealer will be a locally regulated affiliate with its own scope.

The announcement follows a period of heavier institutional overlap between crypto and traditional finance, especially around spot digital asset ETFs. It also gives Wintermute a clearer regulated base for proprietary activity in the U.S. while policymakers continue to define rules for digital asset securities and tokenized markets.