News Heat Trend
Project Overview
Wintermute is a crypto market maker focused on high-frequency algorithmic trading and market making services. It provides liquidity algorithmically across most cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms, as well as supports high profile blockchain projects and traditional financial institutions moving into crypto.
Nova Markets completes new funding round, with participation from Wintermute Ventures and others
Nova Markets has announced the completion of a new funding round, with participation from Wintermute Ventures, Robot Ventures, Big Brain VC, Cumberland, GSR, Greenfield Capital, Hash3, Bodhi Ventures, Kairos Research, and others. The project primarily focuses on on-chain capital and prediction market infrastructure, and the funds will be used to migrate more perpetual contracts and prediction markets on-chain.
Solana Founder-Backed Perp DEX BULK Launches Season 1 Points Program
Solana ecosystem Perp DEX project BULK has announced the launch of its Season 1 points program. Pre-deposits are now open, with 1 million AURA (points) distributed weekly until the exchange officially goes live.Previously, BULK announced the completion of an $8 million seed funding round, led by 6th Man Ventures and Robot Ventures, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Wintermute, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, among others.
Stablecoin financial services platform UnblockPay has closed a $4.5 million seed funding round, with Wintermute participating.
According to Financialit, stablecoin financial services platform UnblockPay has announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed funding round, led by Prelude, with participation from Plug and Play, Wintermute, Reverie, Signature Ventures, Triaxis Capital, Crescera Capital, and a group of angel investors. The new capital will support the development of regulated financial products, enabling businesses to integrate stablecoins into their day-to-day financial operations and facilitating seamless conversions between fiat currencies and major stablecoins such as USDC and USDT for enterprise users.
Robinhood, MetaMask, and other institutions jointly launched the On-Chain Trading Coordination Protocol (OTL).
According to PR Newswire, the Open Transaction Layer (OTL) officially launched on May 28 as an open industry initiative aimed at establishing a unified transaction coordination standard for on-chain finance. OTL defines shared protocols among institutions, non-custodial wallets, and AI agents for identity verification, messaging, and transaction coordination—covering the entire transaction lifecycle, including discovery, compliance, and settlement. The founding alliance comprises over 25 members, including leading financial institutions, payment service providers, and blockchain foundations such as Fireblocks, Checkout.com, Cross River Bank, MetaMask, Robinhood, Securitize, Wintermute, Solana Foundation, and Polygon. OTL’s technical specifications are built upon mature standards including W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and ISO 20022, and adopt a modular five-layer architecture covering Identity, Session, Transport, Messaging, and Application layers. The specifications have been published under an open-source license at otl.network, and the alliance is also open to additional institutional participation.
Robinhood, MetaMask, and Others Join the OTL Initiative: Attempting to Solve the "Missing Coordination Layer" Problem for On-Chain Finance
: Multiple institutions including Robinhood, MetaMask, and eToro, along with Fireblocks, Checkout.com, Cross River Bank, Securitize, Wintermute, and others, jointly announced their participation in the "Open Transaction Layer (OTL)" initiative, aimed at establishing a unified transaction coordination protocol layer for on-chain finance.OTL is positioned as an open protocol stack for coordinating identity verification, compliance validation, transaction messaging, and execution processes among wallets, institutions, and AI agents, addressing the integration fragmentation problem currently plaguing cross-institutional interactions in on-chain finance, where entities operate in silos.The current coalition members include payment companies, trading platforms, wallets, market makers, and custody and stablecoin infrastructure providers, including Robinhood, MetaMask, eToro, MoonPay, SoFi, Wintermute, among others, as well as foundations from multiple public chains such as TON, Solana, Stellar, and Polygon. (Financefeeds)
Wintermute: BTC’s Recent Rally Clearly Driven by Leverage, Open Interest Surges While Spot Volume Slumps
Wintermute’s weekly market report indicates Bitcoin recently broke through $80,000 and briefly touched around $83,000, while also reclaiming the 200-day moving average for the first time in seven months. However, this rally is clearly more driven by leveraged capital rather than spot buying.The report notes that over the past month, Bitcoin open interest increased by approximately $10 billion, while spot trading volume dropped to a two-year low, a classic short squeeze scenario. Although ETFs still recorded net inflows of $623 million and BTC reserves on exchanges fell to a seven-year low, the current RSI has entered overbought territory. If spot buying fails to sustain after the short squeeze ends, BTC prices could face a rapid correction risk.Wintermute also stated that the current crypto market rally is more driven by the strength of US equities and the resonance of leverage, rather than an independent bull market narrative. Upcoming US CPI data and changes in Federal Reserve policy expectations will be key factors in determining whether BTC can stably hold above $80,000.
Stablecoin financial services platform UnblockPay has closed a $4.5 million seed funding round, with Wintermute participating.
According to Financialit, stablecoin financial services platform UnblockPay has announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed funding round, led by Prelude, with participation from Plug and Play, Wintermute, Reverie, Signature Ventures, Triaxis Capital, Crescera Capital, and a group of angel investors. The new capital will support the development of regulated financial products, enabling businesses to integrate stablecoins into their day-to-day financial operations and facilitating seamless conversions between fiat currencies and major stablecoins such as USDC and USDT for enterprise users.
Wintermute Policy Lead: The Clarity Act Has Only a 30% Chance of Passing This Year
According to CoinDesk, Ron Hammond, Policy Lead at crypto market maker Wintermute, stated that the U.S. crypto market structure bill—the Clarity Act—continues to face multiple obstacles in its legislative process, with only about a 30% chance of passage this year. The bill aims to clarify the respective regulatory responsibilities of the SEC and CFTC over digital assets. However, current negotiations are progressing unevenly, and the timeline has been repeatedly delayed. Key resistance stems from traditional banking institutions—particularly over whether stablecoins should be permitted to generate yield—a point of serious disagreement. Related compromise proposals have repeatedly stalled. Moreover, internal divisions among Democrats, as well as issues concerning DeFi compliance and anti-money laundering (AML), further add uncertainty to the legislation. That said, Ron Hammond believes the bill still retains room for advancement; whether it can be enacted this year ultimately hinges on whether critical disagreements can be resolved.
Wintermute: BTC’s Drop Below $62K Not Due to Strategy’s Token Sale; Real Selling Pressure Comes from U.S. Institutions
market maker Wintermute released a weekly market analysis report stating that Bitcoin fell below $62,000 last week, with a weekly decline of approximately 14%, hitting a new low since September 2024. Wintermute believes that although Strategy founder Michael Saylor disclosed the sale of 32 BTC, drawing market attention, the scale of this transaction is negligible. The real reason for the market's weakness is the continuous reduction of positions by U.S. institutional investors and the outflow of funds from spot Bitcoin ETFs.Wintermute pointed out that the U.S. added 172,000 non-farm jobs in May, far exceeding the market expectation of approximately 80,000. Meanwhile, job openings rose to a near two-year high, and the service price index hit a new high since August 2022. Strong economic data has weakened market expectations for a Fed rate cut, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield to 4.55%, creating a "good news is bad news" macro environment that pressures risk assets.Meanwhile, the rally in AI concept stocks has shown signs of weakening, with the Nasdaq index falling 4.7% for the week and the S&P 500 recording its first weekly decline since March. Wintermute believes that the pullback in the AI sector, rising yields, and the upcoming SpaceX IPO have collectively dampened market risk appetite.In the crypto market, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have experienced net outflows for 10 consecutive trading days as of May 30, with total outflows of approximately $2.97 billion. The net outflow in May reached $2.43 billion, marking the worst monthly performance since 2026. Wintermute OTC data shows that retail funds continue to flow into U.S. stocks, while U.S. institutional investors have recently turned bearish and are leading the selling.However, Wintermute believes there are also positive signals in the market, including long-term capital gradually building positions at current price levels. From a perspective of more than one year, Bitcoin's risk-reward ratio is becoming more attractive. The report stated that the SpaceX IPO on June 12 will serve as an important barometer for observing market risk appetite. If the issuance is smoothly absorbed, it could help boost market sentiment; conversely, it may exacerbate the pressure on risk assets.
Holding $317.6 Million in ETH, OTC Whale Buys Another 20,000 ETH from FalconX
the OTC whale (0xFB7) has once again purchased 20,000 ETH from FalconX, worth $40.48 million, and sent 50 million USDT to Wintermute, possibly for further purchases. The whale currently holds 143,906 ETH, valued at $317.6 million.
Wintermute: Institutional Buying Dries Up, Crypto Market Diverges from Stock Market
Wintermute stated that, as of May 25, BTC was trading at approximately $76,600 (down 1.5% weekly), while ETH traded at around $2,140 (down 1.7% weekly). Meanwhile, the U.S. equity market’s S&P 500 Index hit a new all-time high during the same period—highlighting a pronounced divergence between crypto and equities. BTC spot ETFs saw outflows of roughly $1.26 billion for the week, bringing cumulative outflows over two weeks to over $2 billion. Institutional buying—previously instrumental in driving BTC from $70,000 to $80,000—has clearly receded. The ETH/BTC ratio hit a fresh 10-month low, down 35% cumulatively from its August peak. On the macro front, the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index plunged to a historic low of 44.8, while the one-year inflation expectation rose to 4.8%. NVIDIA reported Q1 revenue growth of 85% year-on-year and issued a Q2 revenue guidance of $91 billion—but saw virtually no after-hours reaction, suggesting AI-related trades are already fully priced in. Wintermute noted that BTC’s key support currently lies between $75,000 and $76,000; holding this range could enable a retest of $80,000, whereas a break below would rapidly open the $70,000–$72,000 zone. The near-term direction hinges on whether institutional capital returns to the market.
A whale deposited 17.566 million ENA tokens into Wintermute, incurring a loss of $3.6 million
that, according to Onchain Lens monitoring, a whale deposited 17.566 million ENA tokens, worth $1.78 million, into Wintermute. The whale had previously withdrawn these ENA tokens from Wintermute and Binance at a cost of $5.38 million, resulting in a loss of $3.6 million from this transaction.
Wintermute: Market expectations have shifted from “rate cuts” to “rate hikes,” weakening Bitcoin’s rebound momentum.
According to Finance Feeds, Wintermute’s latest report states that the global market narrative has rapidly shifted from “when will rates be cut?” to “will rates need to be raised?”, driven by rising inflationary pressures and hotter-than-expected macroeconomic data—leading to a cooling of momentum in the crypto market. Bitcoin retreated after briefly breaking above $83,000, while major altcoins posted double-digit weekly declines. The report notes that this rally was primarily fueled by short squeezes in the perpetual futures market—not underlying spot buying. Concurrently, Bitcoin derivatives open interest rose by $10 billion over the past month to $58 billion, while spot trading volume fell to a two-year low. Although spot ETFs recorded net inflows of $623 million recently and exchange-held Bitcoin reserves dropped to a seven-year low, these factors remain insufficient to offset near-term macro risks.
Wintermute Weekly Report: BTC Breaks $80,000, but Rally Structure Raises Concerns
Wintermute released its weekly market analysis, covering the week ending May 11. During this period, BTC broke above $80,000 for the first time since January, peaking near $83,000 and decisively crossing its 200-day moving average—a resistance level that had held for seven months. However, Wintermute noted that this rally was primarily leveraged-driven: open interest surged by $10 billion month-on-month to $58 billion, while spot trading volume hit a two-year low—classic hallmarks of a short squeeze rather than a healthy breakout. Funding rates remain skewed bearish, indicating further short-covering potential in the near term; yet covering shorts does not equate to genuine bullish consensus. Looking at medium- to long-term fundamentals, institutional buying logic remains intact: BTC ETFs posted $623 million in net inflows for the week; Morgan Stanley’s BTC ETF attracted $194 million in its first month with zero net outflows on any single day; and BTC reserves held on exchanges remain at a seven-year low. Nevertheless, Wintermute cautioned that the RSI has entered overbought territory, and if spot buying fails to materialize after the squeeze concludes, prices face significant risk of a rapid correction. On the macro front, the Nasdaq rose 4.5% and the S&P 500 gained 2.3% for the week—both hitting all-time highs. Nonfarm payrolls significantly exceeded expectations (115,000 vs. forecast 65,000). U.S.-Iran negotiations collapsed, with Iran demanding sovereignty recognition and reparations—terms rejected by Trump. Oil prices swung violently between $88 and $113 per barrel during the week, yet equity markets reacted indifferently. Key events to watch this week:
Wintermute: BTC’s Drop Below $62K Not Due to Strategy’s Token Sale; Real Selling Pressure Comes from U.S. Institutions
market maker Wintermute released a weekly market analysis report stating that Bitcoin fell below $62,000 last week, with a weekly decline of approximately 14%, hitting a new low since September 2024. Wintermute believes that although Strategy founder Michael Saylor disclosed the sale of 32 BTC, drawing market attention, the scale of this transaction is negligible. The real reason for the market's weakness is the continuous reduction of positions by U.S. institutional investors and the outflow of funds from spot Bitcoin ETFs.Wintermute pointed out that the U.S. added 172,000 non-farm jobs in May, far exceeding the market expectation of approximately 80,000. Meanwhile, job openings rose to a near two-year high, and the service price index hit a new high since August 2022. Strong economic data has weakened market expectations for a Fed rate cut, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield to 4.55%, creating a "good news is bad news" macro environment that pressures risk assets.Meanwhile, the rally in AI concept stocks has shown signs of weakening, with the Nasdaq index falling 4.7% for the week and the S&P 500 recording its first weekly decline since March. Wintermute believes that the pullback in the AI sector, rising yields, and the upcoming SpaceX IPO have collectively dampened market risk appetite.In the crypto market, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have experienced net outflows for 10 consecutive trading days as of May 30, with total outflows of approximately $2.97 billion. The net outflow in May reached $2.43 billion, marking the worst monthly performance since 2026. Wintermute OTC data shows that retail funds continue to flow into U.S. stocks, while U.S. institutional investors have recently turned bearish and are leading the selling.However, Wintermute believes there are also positive signals in the market, including long-term capital gradually building positions at current price levels. From a perspective of more than one year, Bitcoin's risk-reward ratio is becoming more attractive. The report stated that the SpaceX IPO on June 12 will serve as an important barometer for observing market risk appetite. If the issuance is smoothly absorbed, it could help boost market sentiment; conversely, it may exacerbate the pressure on risk assets.
DRW, Wintermute, and IMC Form Prediction Market Trading Teams, Deploying on Polymarket and Kalshi
as prediction market trading volume grows, institutional capital is entering this sector. Quantitative trading firms such as DRW, Wintermute, and IMC are forming dedicated prediction market trading teams, recently posting relevant job openings to focus on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. These teams aim to capture pricing deviation profits through cross-platform arbitrage, market microstructure arbitrage, and news-driven trading strategies. Industry insiders believe that as the prediction market expands and on-chain trading platforms like Hyperliquid plan to launch prediction market products, a competition centered on latency, liquidity, and cross-platform efficiency has already begun. (CoinDesk)
Solana Founder-Backed Perp DEX BULK Launches Season 1 Points Program
Solana ecosystem Perp DEX project BULK has announced the launch of its Season 1 points program. Pre-deposits are now open, with 1 million AURA (points) distributed weekly until the exchange officially goes live.Previously, BULK announced the completion of an $8 million seed funding round, led by 6th Man Ventures and Robot Ventures, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Wintermute, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, among others.
Wintermute: Will Provide Liquidity for Prediction Markets
Wintermute stated that it is expanding its institutional trading business to prediction markets. Wintermute will provide two-way market liquidity for event contracts on major venues to reduce spreads, support larger-scale trades, and improve the reliability of market-implied probabilities.Jake Ostrovskis, Head of OTC Trading at Wintermute, stated that prediction markets exhibit data characteristics similar to major asset classes, but liquidity remains in its early stages. Continuous two-way liquidity will not only narrow spreads but also support larger trading volumes, thereby improving the signals contained in market prices. (cointelegraph)
Robinhood, MetaMask, and other institutions jointly launched the On-Chain Trading Coordination Protocol (OTL).
According to PR Newswire, the Open Transaction Layer (OTL) officially launched on May 28 as an open industry initiative aimed at establishing a unified transaction coordination standard for on-chain finance. OTL defines shared protocols among institutions, non-custodial wallets, and AI agents for identity verification, messaging, and transaction coordination—covering the entire transaction lifecycle, including discovery, compliance, and settlement. The founding alliance comprises over 25 members, including leading financial institutions, payment service providers, and blockchain foundations such as Fireblocks, Checkout.com, Cross River Bank, MetaMask, Robinhood, Securitize, Wintermute, Solana Foundation, and Polygon. OTL’s technical specifications are built upon mature standards including W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and ISO 20022, and adopt a modular five-layer architecture covering Identity, Session, Transport, Messaging, and Application layers. The specifications have been published under an open-source license at otl.network, and the alliance is also open to additional institutional participation.
Robinhood, MetaMask, and Others Join the OTL Initiative: Attempting to Solve the "Missing Coordination Layer" Problem for On-Chain Finance
: Multiple institutions including Robinhood, MetaMask, and eToro, along with Fireblocks, Checkout.com, Cross River Bank, Securitize, Wintermute, and others, jointly announced their participation in the "Open Transaction Layer (OTL)" initiative, aimed at establishing a unified transaction coordination protocol layer for on-chain finance.OTL is positioned as an open protocol stack for coordinating identity verification, compliance validation, transaction messaging, and execution processes among wallets, institutions, and AI agents, addressing the integration fragmentation problem currently plaguing cross-institutional interactions in on-chain finance, where entities operate in silos.The current coalition members include payment companies, trading platforms, wallets, market makers, and custody and stablecoin infrastructure providers, including Robinhood, MetaMask, eToro, MoonPay, SoFi, Wintermute, among others, as well as foundations from multiple public chains such as TON, Solana, Stellar, and Polygon. (Financefeeds)
Related news
Wintermute: BTC’s Drop Below $62K Not Due to Strategy’s Token Sale; Real Selling Pressure Comes from U.S. Institutions
market maker Wintermute released a weekly market analysis report stating that Bitcoin fell below $62,000 last week, with a weekly decline of approximately 14%, hitting a new low since September 2024. Wintermute believes that although Strategy founder Michael Saylor disclosed the sale of 32 BTC, drawing market attention, the scale of this transaction is negligible. The real reason for the market's weakness is the continuous reduction of positions by U.S. institutional investors and the outflow of funds from spot Bitcoin ETFs.Wintermute pointed out that the U.S. added 172,000 non-farm jobs in May, far exceeding the market expectation of approximately 80,000. Meanwhile, job openings rose to a near two-year high, and the service price index hit a new high since August 2022. Strong economic data has weakened market expectations for a Fed rate cut, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield to 4.55%, creating a "good news is bad news" macro environment that pressures risk assets.Meanwhile, the rally in AI concept stocks has shown signs of weakening, with the Nasdaq index falling 4.7% for the week and the S&P 500 recording its first weekly decline since March. Wintermute believes that the pullback in the AI sector, rising yields, and the upcoming SpaceX IPO have collectively dampened market risk appetite.In the crypto market, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have experienced net outflows for 10 consecutive trading days as of May 30, with total outflows of approximately $2.97 billion. The net outflow in May reached $2.43 billion, marking the worst monthly performance since 2026. Wintermute OTC data shows that retail funds continue to flow into U.S. stocks, while U.S. institutional investors have recently turned bearish and are leading the selling.However, Wintermute believes there are also positive signals in the market, including long-term capital gradually building positions at current price levels. From a perspective of more than one year, Bitcoin's risk-reward ratio is becoming more attractive. The report stated that the SpaceX IPO on June 12 will serve as an important barometer for observing market risk appetite. If the issuance is smoothly absorbed, it could help boost market sentiment; conversely, it may exacerbate the pressure on risk assets.
DRW, Wintermute, and IMC Form Prediction Market Trading Teams, Deploying on Polymarket and Kalshi
as prediction market trading volume grows, institutional capital is entering this sector. Quantitative trading firms such as DRW, Wintermute, and IMC are forming dedicated prediction market trading teams, recently posting relevant job openings to focus on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. These teams aim to capture pricing deviation profits through cross-platform arbitrage, market microstructure arbitrage, and news-driven trading strategies. Industry insiders believe that as the prediction market expands and on-chain trading platforms like Hyperliquid plan to launch prediction market products, a competition centered on latency, liquidity, and cross-platform efficiency has already begun. (CoinDesk)
Nova Markets completes new funding round, with participation from Wintermute Ventures and others
Nova Markets has announced the completion of a new funding round, with participation from Wintermute Ventures, Robot Ventures, Big Brain VC, Cumberland, GSR, Greenfield Capital, Hash3, Bodhi Ventures, Kairos Research, and others. The project primarily focuses on on-chain capital and prediction market infrastructure, and the funds will be used to migrate more perpetual contracts and prediction markets on-chain.
Solana Founder-Backed Perp DEX BULK Launches Season 1 Points Program
Solana ecosystem Perp DEX project BULK has announced the launch of its Season 1 points program. Pre-deposits are now open, with 1 million AURA (points) distributed weekly until the exchange officially goes live.Previously, BULK announced the completion of an $8 million seed funding round, led by 6th Man Ventures and Robot Ventures, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Wintermute, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, among others.
Wintermute: Will Provide Liquidity for Prediction Markets
Wintermute stated that it is expanding its institutional trading business to prediction markets. Wintermute will provide two-way market liquidity for event contracts on major venues to reduce spreads, support larger-scale trades, and improve the reliability of market-implied probabilities.Jake Ostrovskis, Head of OTC Trading at Wintermute, stated that prediction markets exhibit data characteristics similar to major asset classes, but liquidity remains in its early stages. Continuous two-way liquidity will not only narrow spreads but also support larger trading volumes, thereby improving the signals contained in market prices. (cointelegraph)
Wintermute Enters Prediction Market Making, Expanding into Event Contract Liquidity
quantitative market maker Wintermute has announced its entry into the prediction market space, providing two-way quote liquidity services for multiple mainstream event contract platforms. This marks the official expansion of its trading infrastructure into the emerging market at the intersection of crypto and traditional assets.According to the company, it has been continuously providing two-sided buy and sell quotes on several "leading platforms." The combined monthly trading volume of these prediction markets this year has exceeded $20 billion, indicating rapid growth in this sector, though it remains in an early stage of liquidity development. With Wintermute's annual trading volume surpassing $3.5 trillion, this expansion further strengthens its cross-asset market-making capabilities.Jake Ostrovskis, Head of OTC Trading at the company, stated that prediction markets have a demand structure similar to traditional asset classes, but liquidity remains insufficient, requiring sustained two-sided quotes to enhance price discovery efficiency and market depth. He noted that tighter spreads and greater trade capacity will improve the quality of market probability signals.On the industry side, institutions such as Jump Trading and Galaxy Digital have also entered this field. Some platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi have cumulatively amassed a trading volume exceeding $150 billion.Analysts believe that Wintermute's entry further drives the integration of prediction markets with crypto infrastructure, particularly in areas such as stablecoin settlement, on-chain clearing, and risk management systems. These markets are gradually approaching an institutionalized development structure akin to derivatives. (The Block)