- Binance and Wintermute faced scrutiny over forced sell-off claims.
- Global market cap surged by 3.20% as BTC and ETH recorded gains.
2025 is proving to be a turbulent year for the crypto market, marked by two major crashes—one triggered by the launch of DeepSeek and the other by an escalating tariff war.
The sharp downturn has also fueled speculation about market manipulation, with industry giants facing scrutiny.
Source: X
For those unaware, the crypto market faced a staggering $2.24 billion in liquidations within 24 hours on the 3rd of February.
This was after an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump imposing import tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico.
Wintermute CEO stands in defense
However, Wintermute’s founder Evgeny Gaevoy defied these claims stating that cryptocurrency was liquidated due to traditional finance (TradFi) events, and not industry participants.
He said,
“Understanding that our little crypto market is now very directly linked to the real world outside […] is pretty essential to being a (more) successful trader. But sure, you can ignore this information and choose to believe in a Wintermute + Binance conspiracy.”
Is Marty Party adding fuel to the fire?
Crypto sleuth Marty Party has also raised alarms over potential market manipulation, alleging that Binance is funneling substantial funds into Wintermute to trigger forced sell-offs and influence trader behavior.
Source: MartyParty/X
According to his claims, this strategy aims to push investors into capitulation, creating opportunities for large players to buy at lower prices.
While suspicions of foul play have lingered, it was only recently that Marty Party directly linked Binance and Wintermute to possible market manipulation.
In response, Gaevoy dismissed concerns, assuring the community that this situation does not resemble past collapses like FTX or Terra-Luna.
“We are not taking months long positions like Trabucco did at Alameda and when we take these positions, they are fairly small (and subject to that 20-30% of net equity range I’ve mentioned earlier). Vast majority of our discretionary plays are longs, buying the dip or buy locked tokens at big discount type. While we do take short positions, these are very rare.”
Gaevoy stated that the firm operates across Centralized Finance (CeFi), Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and Over-the-Counter (OTC) markets, maintaining a highly diversified approach.
He added,
“We don’t manipulate prices, because a) we don’t know how b) our core business is valuable enough to not do stupid illegal shit.”
All about Wintermute and its journey
Wintermute remains Binance’s leading counterparty, with trading volumes reaching $34.54 billion over the past month. Of this, Wintermute accounted for $14.94 billion, while Binance saw $19.24 billion.
Market makers play a crucial role in maintaining liquidity, but their actions can amplify selling pressure during downturns.
In August 2024, five major market makers collectively offloaded 130,000 ETH—worth approximately $290 million—as ETH’s price plunged from $3,000 to below $2,200.
Wintermute led the sell-off with over 47,000 ETH, followed by Jump Trading with 36,000 ETH, and Flow Traders with 3,620 ETH, according to Scopescan.
Although market makers were not the root cause of recent crashes, their large-scale liquidations raise concerns about their influence on price movements during volatile market conditions.
Current market trend
According to the latest data from CoinMarketCap, the global crypto market cap has pulled back to $3.21 trillion. This reflected a sharp 3.20% increase in just 24 hours.
Notably, Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH] have too recorded gains of 3.58% and 3.96%, respectively, over the same period.
