Crypto’s Asia Pivot Spurs Market Maker Wintermute to Boost Singapore Base

Takashi Nakamichi and Suvashree Ghosh, Bloomberg News

A collection of bitcoin, litecoin and ethereum tokens sit in this arranged photograph in Danbury, U.K., on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017. On Wednesday, billionaire Warren Buffett said on CNBC that most digital coins won't hold their value. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The co-founder of leading crypto market maker Wintermute Trading Ltd. plans to move to Singapore along with some of his staff as the digital-asset industry increasingly turns to Asia for growth opportunities.

Yoann Turpin said in an interview he’ll move from London officially in a few months and that about 4% of the company’s roughly 85 staff are also due to relocate to the city-state, where Wintermute conducts derivatives business.

“We are much more focused on Asia,” Turpin said on the sidelines of a web3 conference in Tokyo earlier this week. “We send a strong signal by having me as a co-founder in Asia to push the business further.”

Crypto is turning to Asia as the industry reels from a US crackdown after bankruptcies at platforms including FTX and Celsius Network. Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan are among the places vying to woo firms while ensuring that regulations reflect the lessons of 2022’s bear market and the ensuing blowups.

Read more: Crypto Traders Fleeing US Crackdown Set Sights on Asian Markets

Tokens such as Bitcoin and Ether have partially rebounded from last year’s crash but spot digital-asset trading volumes and volatility remain depressed in a sign of diminished investor engagement. In contrast, demand for crypto futures and options has so far proved more durable.

The shakeout and regulatory pressure in the US — including on top crypto exchange Binance — has impacted market making. For instance, Jane Street Group and Jump Trading have pulled back from digital assets in America.

Research firm Kaiko recently tweeted that crypto market depth, or the market’s ability to shoulder relatively large orders without impacting the price of an asset, has failed to recover since the FTX collapse.

Wintermute set up an office in Singapore in 2021, its second after London. A third could follow in Dubai if the company decides to establish another base, Turpin said. Dubai is among jurisdictions seeking to woo crypto businesses.

Wintermute facilitates over-the-counter crypto trading, provides liquidity for exchanges and has invested in over 85 projects, ranging from decentralized finance to blockchain infrastructure, its website shows.

In 2021, during the pandemic-era bull market in digital assets oiled by ultra-loose central bank policies, Wintermute had trading volume valued at $1.5 trillion and brought in $1.05 billion in revenue, according to a report.

The business was then buffeted by market turmoil, including around $55 million of exposure of assets on FTX. Last September, Wintermute was hacked for about $160 million from its decentralized finance operations.

Turpin said the company “survived a bit of an expensive year” in 2022 and isn’t planning to raise funds anytime soon.

--With assistance from Emily Nicolle and Nao Sano.