Wintermute is Now One of the Biggest Market Makers in Crypto and Has Birthed 36 Millionaires

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Ruholamin Haqshanas

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Ruholamin Haqshanas

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Ruholamin Haqshanas is a contributing crypto writer for CryptoNews. He is a crypto and finance journalist with over four years of experience. Ruholamin has been featured in several high-profile crypto...

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June 25, 2023

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Wintermute, a leading global crypto market maker, has paid its 36 British staff a total of $83 million in 2021, suggesting that the crypto company gave birth to 36 new millionaires. 

According to its newly filed annual report, Wintermute paid its 36 UK staff $83 million in 2021, meaning the firm had an average payout of $2.3 million for each employee. Furthermore, the crypto company paid a whopping $22.5 million to one director in the year. 

The unprecedented payment came in a year when almost all cryptocurrencies hit all-time highs. Amid the surge in crypto prices, Wintermute made $582 million in profits in 2021 as revenues surged from just $40.4 million in 2020 to $818.5 million.

Wintermute has emerged to be a leading global algorithmic market maker in the crypto space. The company has become an essential part of the crypto ecosystem as it helps create liquid and efficient markets on centralized and decentralized trading platforms. 

The crypto market maker also helps facilitate the entrance of traditional financial institutions and high-profile blockchain projects into crypto. So far, Wintermute has inked partnerships with over 50 exchanges and trading platforms.

In 2021, Wintermute traded around $1.5 trillion in digital assets. The company currently manages hundreds of millions in assets and trades more than $5 billion per day. Prior to the crypto market crash in 2022, the crypto market maker made an average of $2.3m each year, the filing revealed. 

Presidents and executive directors at Wintermute, including founder w, earned a total of $31 million in 2021. The highest-paid director received $22.5 million in the year, up from $1.6 million a year earlier.

Gaevoy, with more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, raised a small $2.8 million round of Series A venture funding in July 2018 for the crypto market maker. 

Amid the recent brutal market meltdown, Wintermute has also seen a steep drop in its revenue. The company reportedly registered revenues of $225 million in the first nine months of 2022, Forbes reported.

As reported, Wintermute suffered a $160 million hack in September last year resulting from human error that left one of its digital wallets exposed. At the time, the company’s executive stated that they had around $320 million worth of assets left in coffers, and remain solvent. 

Furthermore, the crypto market maker has around $59 million locked on FTX, once the third-largest crypto exchange in the world that filed for bankruptcy late last year.