Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder & CEO of Wintermute

Evgeny Gaevoy is the Founder and CEO of Wintermute, one of the largest algorithmic crypto market makers and OTC/liquidity providers in the industry. With a background in traditional finance market-making at Optiver, Gaevoy founded Wintermute in 2017 to bring quantitative trading and market-making infrastructure to cryptocurrency markets — both centralized and decentralized.

Wintermute operates algorithmically across hundreds of trading pairs on major centralized exchanges and provides deep on-chain liquidity in DeFi protocols, playing a critical infrastructure role in crypto price discovery and trading efficiency. The company also operates Wintermute Ventures, an investment arm backing early-stage crypto protocols and companies.

What Wintermute Does

Wintermute provides three core services to the crypto ecosystem:

• Market Making: Algorithmic continuous two-sided quoting (bids and offers) on centralized exchanges, ensuring liquid markets for tokens and reducing bid-ask spreads for retail and institutional traders.
• OTC Trading: Over-the-counter block trading services for institutions and large participants who need to execute significant positions without moving markets.
• DeFi Liquidity: On-chain liquidity provision in decentralized exchange protocols and lending markets, using algorithmic strategies adapted to on-chain settlement constraints.

Wintermute also provides token project services — helping new token issuers establish market liquidity at and after launch — and operates Wintermute Ventures as a strategic investor in crypto infrastructure companies and protocols.

2022 Security Incident

In September 2022, Wintermute disclosed that it suffered a security exploit resulting in approximately $160 million in losses from its DeFi operations. The company stated that its CeFi and OTC operations were unaffected, that all counterparties remained fully solvent, and that the incident did not represent client losses. Gaevoy publicly disclosed the incident and committed to making all counterparties whole. The exploit was attributed to a vulnerability in Profanity-generated wallet addresses used in smart contract admin keys. This is a material historical event in Wintermute's public record.

Current 2026 Work

As of August 2026, Gaevoy continues as Founder and CEO of Wintermute. The company has expanded its geographic footprint, institutional OTC services, and DeFi liquidity operations. Wintermute Ventures continues to invest in crypto infrastructure. Gaevoy has been public about Wintermute's views on market structure, stablecoin regulation, and institutional adoption of digital assets. For current trading volumes or assets under management, readers should consult Wintermute's official communications, as such figures change frequently.

Key Contributions

• Wintermute Founding: Founded Wintermute in 2017; built one of the largest algorithmic crypto market-making operations from the ground up.
• DeFi Market Making: Developed institutional-grade on-chain liquidity strategies for decentralized exchange protocols.
• OTC Institutional Infrastructure: Built OTC block trading services enabling large institutional participants to access crypto liquidity at scale.
• Wintermute Ventures: Established an investment arm that provides both capital and market-making services to early-stage crypto protocols.
• Market Transparency: Gaevoy has been publicly vocal about market structure issues, publishing commentary on crypto market efficiency and regulation.

Career Timeline

Sources & Verification

• wintermute.com
• LinkedIn (evgeny-gaevoy-3148a61)

Information last checked: August 2026