On April 1, the cryptocurrency community was caught off guard, including a range of AltCoins, including ACT, Kava, DF… and dropped by nearly 50%.
What is the common thread between these tokens? All of these tokens are related to the same market maker: Wintermute. This quickly led to speculation within the community that Wintermute dumped the entire stake, triggering a sharp decline and widespread panic.
However, Wintermute’s CEO responded immediately, firmly denying the allegations and seeing them as unfounded rumors.
A tough year in winter
In early 2025 – With many Altcoins hitting new all-time lows (ATLS), Wintermute once again found itself under scrutiny for allegedly triggering sharp market volatility. According to Arkham, between January 27 and 28, Wintermute received more than $100 million from Binance, a figure that is enough to shake the market during this period.
However, Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy clarified that all transactions between Binance and Wintermute are for marketing and liquidity provision purposes only.
What threads does Wintermute have?
It has been very “interesting” on Twitter in recent days, with some accounts hitting new lows in terms of understanding of market structure. I’ve written a few times in the past about our work and how we love doing things, but maybe it’s a good time…
– fileflycynic (@evgenygaevoy) February 3, 2025
As the market began to stabilize, Wintermott became a scapegoat again, with a major crash involving twenty tokens. According to Arkham, Wintermute pulled liquidity from several AMMs, triggering the token price drop by more than 60%, including ACT, Dexe, Kava, DF, Hippo, Hippo, Bananas31, Lumia, TST and Quick.
Other AltCoins were also affected, with some releases losing nearly 40%.
Multiple Altcoins crashed. Source: X
However, CEO Evgeny Gaevoy responded to an incident conducted earlier this year, denying any allegations of carpet pulling or mass dumping. He clarified that Wintermut’s actions were purely related to arbitrage transactions.
We are just doing AMM arbitrage. Honestly, we also want to know what is going on in the market. ”
In response to the backlash, Wintermut reportedly began buying the return bill and several affected tokens.
Binance: As a new market villain
Binance’s sudden policy shift sparks market turmoil
If Wintermute is unintentionally dumping the tokens, the community begins to ask a more pressing question: Who is actually behind the crash?
Some speculate that the binary may have triggered a sharp drop in several altcoins “indirectly”. On April 1, at 2 p.m. (GMT), the exchange suddenly announced changes to the leverage and margin requirements for certain tokens. For open locations, Binance automatically applies new terms.
Read more: There will be more BNB chain tokens listed for binance
The move led to a wave of forced liquidation, pushing many traders to the red and allowing the altcoin price to freely send it to freefall. The impact is not limited to the derivatives market. The sell-off quickly spread to the spot market, leading to a wider market recession.
The suddenness of change has attracted the attention of the entire community. Many people believe that the second strong action is too sudden, leaving traders with little time to adjust. Now someone wants to know: Can similar events be unfolded again?
Binance responded, but there are still questions
In response, Binance co-founder YI said the team is collecting evidence and will publish an official explanation soon. She also suggests that some famous figures in the cryptocurrency space may intentionally damage binance’s reputation by spreading negative narratives.
Despite this, the problem remains unresolved. Many investors believe that Binance’s recent actions have had a disproportionate negative impact on the market, and the position is worse than the day before.
Read more: Review of price manipulation in super liquidity
