Crypto is winning the race to own oil trading after hours as Wintermute launches 24/7 trading
For decades, the oil market moved on a very familiar and very predictable schedule.
The biggest signals came from legacy futures venues; traders knew where the deepest pools of liquidity were and when they'd come alive.
But, like almost everything else, oil too hasn't been immune to the modern market's hunger.
Its rhythm has started to break as war pushed energy onto a much different kind of schedule.
Headlines are now landing at unexpected hours, risk is building on weekends, and an announcement from Washington can send crude surging hours before exchanges are open for business.
As those gaps kept widening, crypto companies saw an opportunity that was too good to miss out on: 24/7 oil trading.
While this has been in the works for quite a while, it was Wintermute's new 24/7 WTF crude oil CFD offering that pushed it into the mainstream.
On the surface, this might look like just another product launch, another massive company expanding its menu.
But set against the past few months, it looks like a land grab.
Wintermute is the latest of many companies trying to capture a slice of the oil market, which has become far more valuable than it was just a few months ago.
Geopolitical risk doesn't care for office hours, and traders want exposure to oil immediately.
That's why its product will enable users to post both fiat and crypto as collateral and trade around the clock through OTC channels.
Legacy venues are too far and too slow to deal with the kind of demand that's coming from the market right now.
On March 24, traders placed more than $500 million in crude bets just before President Donald Trump announced that the US would delay attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
The market swung hard: Brent fell from about $112 to $99, while WTI dropped from roughly $99 to $86.
