Wintermute is short on all big assets except for BTC

The recent market volatility brought a new wave of scrutiny on the positions of Wintermute. The leading market maker has been closely watched for spot and derivative positions, with the potential to sway the price of BTC and other assets. 

Wintermute holds large-scale short positions on most of the crypto market, based on Hyperliquid on-chain data. The market maker’s positions have been identified by Arkham Intelligence, listing 129 derivative positions on Hyperliquid. 

As Cryptopolitan reported, Wintermute increased its influence by carrying an even larger share of institutional trades and positions. Wintermute also registered with the US SEC as a broker-dealer, becoming an even more important player in crypto trading.

In the past week, Wintermute’s activities were closely tracked as a source of signals for BTC and other assets. In the past week, on-chain explorers showed Wintermute sent 3,834.3 BTC to Binance, with around 590 BTC in the past day. The latest inflows of Wintermute funds to exchanges are seen as the strongest signal for a shift in price direction. 

While Wintermute itself does not take a directional bet, its movements often cause traders to react. Wintermute’s selling is also highly influential, while potentially making the derivative positions more profitable. 

Wintermute is long on BTC  

As of August 23, Wintermute holds a 20X long leveraged position on BTC, valued at 77.44 BTC. The position was paying fees to other traders, though it switched to receiving $31K in positive fees. 

In total, Wintermute holds $160.03M in short positions on Hyperliquid. The positions are held despite negative funding, as a way to hedge spot selling and overall market fluctuations. 

Wintermute switched long on BTC after the sell-off of the last few days, just as BTC found a bottom at around $75,000. The position of Wintermute is reflecting other market participants, as the market maker is neutral on directional positions. Despite this, some of the on-chain activities of Wintermute have been known to create panic and have been linked to the breakdown of BTC rallies. 

Can Wintermute cause an ETH crash?

While Wintermute is long on BTC, ETH may face headwinds based on the market maker’s activity. On-chain data shows Wintermute sent over $65M in ETH to exchanges over the last 24 hours. The deposits coincided with a 4% price drop for ETH. 

Wintermute holds an 11.69K ETH short position with 15X leverage and a small unrealized gain. 

A series of short positions by Wintermute does not necessarily translate into a bearish signal. When Wintermute moves funds to exchanges and sells, this may mean the market maker is providing liquidity and balancing it with short positions. 

For now, Wintermute may not be causing an Ethereum crash. The market is reevaluating its risk signals, and both Ethereum and Bitcoin have switched to greed as their leading sentiment. 

ETH traded at $2,416.44, below its recent peak at $2,512. BTC remained at around $77,200, with liquidity available up to $80,000.