- Binance and Wintermute confronted scrutiny over compelled sell-off claims.
- International market cap surged by 3.20% as BTC and ETH recorded features.
2025 is proving to be a turbulent yr for the crypto market, marked by two main crashes—one triggered by the launch of DeepSeek and the opposite by an escalating tariff battle.
The sharp downturn has additionally fueled hypothesis about market manipulation, with trade giants dealing with scrutiny.
Supply: X
For these unaware, the crypto market confronted a staggering $2.24 billion in liquidations inside 24 hours on the third of February.
This was after an govt order by U.S. President Donald Trump imposing import tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico.
Wintermute CEO stands in protection
Nonetheless, Wintermute’s founder Evgeny Gaevoy defied these claims stating that cryptocurrency was liquidated as a consequence of conventional finance (TradFi) occasions, and never trade contributors.
He mentioned,
“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 Occasion including gasoline to the hearth?
Crypto sleuth Marty Occasion has additionally raised alarms over potential market manipulation, alleging that Binance is funneling substantial funds into Wintermute to set off compelled sell-offs and affect dealer conduct.

Supply: MartyParty/X
In response to his claims, this technique goals to push buyers into capitulation, creating alternatives for giant gamers to purchase at decrease costs.
Whereas suspicions of foul play have lingered, it was solely not too long ago that Marty Occasion instantly linked Binance and Wintermute to potential market manipulation.
In response, Gaevoy dismissed considerations, assuring the group that this case doesn’t resemble previous 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 said that the agency operates throughout Centralized Finance (CeFi), Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and Over-the-Counter (OTC) markets, sustaining a extremely diversified method.
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 stays Binance’s main counterparty, with buying and selling volumes reaching $34.54 billion over the previous month. Of this, Wintermute accounted for $14.94 billion, whereas Binance noticed $19.24 billion.
Market makers play a vital function in sustaining liquidity, however their actions can amplify promoting stress throughout downturns.
In August 2024, 5 main market makers collectively offloaded 130,000 ETH—value roughly $290 million—as ETH’s value plunged from $3,000 to beneath $2,200.
Wintermute led the sell-off with over 47,000 ETH, adopted by Bounce Buying and selling with 36,000 ETH, and Circulation Merchants with 3,620 ETH, in response to Scopescan.
Though market makers weren’t the basis reason for latest crashes, their large-scale liquidations elevate considerations about their affect on value actions throughout unstable market circumstances.
Present market pattern
In response to the most recent knowledge from CoinMarketCap, the worldwide crypto market cap has pulled again to $3.21 trillion. This mirrored a pointy 3.20% enhance in simply 24 hours.
Notably, Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH] have too recorded features of three.58% and three.96%, respectively, over the identical interval.