"Wintermute CEO: AI's Role in Crypto's Future, Navigating Asian Markets"

Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy Discusses the Future of Crypto Trading

Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute, a leading algorithmic trading and liquidity provider in the crypto market, shares his insights on the future of crypto trading, the differences between Asian and Western markets, and the role of AI in trading. Gaevoy, who will be speaking at Consensus Hong Kong, discusses how Wintermute is responding to the growing fragmentation of liquidity across multiple blockchains.

Gaevoy began his career in traditional finance, specializing in market making and prop trading. In 2016, he realized the potential for disintermediation in the crypto market and launched Wintermute in 2017. Since then, Wintermute has grown into one of the largest algorithmic trading and liquidity providers in crypto, processing over $5 billion in daily trading volume and providing deep liquidity to 50+ trading venues across centralized and decentralized exchanges.

Gaevoy notes that Asian crypto markets differ from those in the West, with regulation primarily driven by the U.S. and China being the biggest missing piece in institutional trading. He highlights Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong as key opportunities in the Asian market, with Japan attracting institutions through tax incentives, South Korea having a massive retail market with potential liquidity unlocks, and Hong Kong serving as a regulatory experiment for China.

Gaevoy believes that AI is already widely used in trading and will continue to play a significant role. However, he does not think AI will completely replace human traders in the next 5-10 years due to the unpredictable nature of the crypto market and the limitations of AI in adapting to unexpected market shifts. Wintermute uses AI where it makes sense but still relies on human decision-making for market dynamics that AI does not fully understand.

When asked about the challenge of liquidity becoming increasingly fragmented across different blockchains, Gaevoy explains that Wintermute embraces fragmentation as an opportunity to facilitate and promote diversity in blockchains, centralized exchanges, and decentralized exchanges. He believes that crypto is inherently decentralized and will continue to expand, with firms like Wintermute needing to be agile enough to operate in all liquidity pools.

Gaevoy is excited to discuss market structure and the role of market makers in crypto at Consensus Hong