Wintermute Wins SEC Broker-Dealer Approval for US Stocks, ETFs
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- Wintermute USA LLC registered with the SEC and joined FINRA as a broker-dealer, authorizing the firm to trade U.S. stocks, equity options, and provide ETF liquidity — including serving as an authorized participant that creates and redeems large blocks of ETF shares to keep fund prices aligned with underlying assets.
- The registration lets Wintermute self-clear digital asset securities for proprietary accounts and seek market-making roles on the NYSE and Nasdaq, with the firm having already lined up ETF issuers to work with per the Wall Street Journal.
- Wintermute will operate the U.S. unit strictly as a proprietary trading firm and announced no retail brokerage services, initially focusing on crypto-linked markets with plans to scale into tokenized stocks pending regulatory approvals.
- The company handles more than $10 billion in average daily trading volume across over 60 centralized and decentralized venues, underscoring the scale it is now bringing onto regulated U.S. rails.
- Wintermute joins a cohort of crypto firms — including Ripple (which closed its $1.25 billion Hidden Road acquisition in 2025), GSR (which bought Equilibrium Capital Services), and Crypto.com (which acquired Watchdog Capital in 2024) — that have built or bought regulated U.S. securities businesses.
- The U.S. push follows Wintermute opening its New York headquarters last year and asking the SEC to confirm that broker-dealers could trade tokenized securities, self-clear transactions, and hold proprietary positions through wallet software.
Why it matters: Wintermute's broker-dealer status gives a crypto-native liquidity provider direct, regulated access to U.S. equity and ETF markets, including authorized-participation roles in crypto-linked funds — blurring the operational boundary between digital-asset trading and Wall Street infrastructure for institutional counterparties.
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