Why Crypto Twitter Wants Wintermute’s Team To Go To Jail

Market maker Wintermute is facing the wrath of Crypto Twitter/X, with allegations of market manipulation.

The controversy comes amid a historical market sell-off, which saw $2.24 billion being liquidated from the crypto markets within 24 hours on 3 February, following US President Donald Trump’s executive order on the introduction of tariffs on some of the US’ closest trading partners.

Crypto sleuth Marty Party claims that Binance is transferring millions of crypto to Wintermute to “force capitulation,” leveraging the market maker’s power to influence traders to dump their positions.

Marty caught wind of the trades last month, ahead of the market crash. In a 28 January tweet, Marty highlighted that “Binance continues sending millions in $BTC $ETH and $SOL to Wintermute Market Maker to market sell on its exchange. They are the only entities selling digital assets and drawing charts.”

Trending

Trump Cancels CBDC, Favors Stablecoin in U.S. Financial Strategy

“The reason Im sharing this intel is to show you nobody is selling but the market makers – buy spot crypto and HOLD in self custody. The Market Maker is paid to draw charts intended to scare you, and to liquidate leverage traders. DO NOT GET SHAKEN OUT. HOLD,” he explained.

In response, Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy took to X in an attempt to reassure the market.

“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,” he wrote.

“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,” he added.

However, crypto Twitter was quick to point out that Gaevoy seemed to admit that Wintermute sells on Binance.

“If we sell on Binance, we will be looking to buy back at whatever price is best across all liquidity sources available to us,” Gaevoy said in one tweet.

“WINTERMUTE CEO CONFIRMED THEY SELL ON #BINANCE! WHEN JAIL?” Wrote one angry X user, sharing a screenshot of Gavoy’s tweet.

“WINTERMUTE CEO confirmed an hour ago that they sell on Binance open market and then buy OTC. EXACTLY WHAT I SAID MONTHS AGO. JAIL IS COMING. PRICE SUPPRESSION IS SO REAL,” said another.

The concern comes from Binance and Wintermute creating trade volume without authentic demand, which in turn would force prices down.

“By dumping assets, they trigger fear, stop-losses, and liquidations, fueling shorts and driving prices lower. Retail traders panic sell, while market makers profit from shorts and buy back cheap. It’s a controlled cycle to manipulate sentiment and price. Beware of these tactics,” one X user explains.

“Wintermute accumulated OTC assets (mainly SOL, ETH, BTC) through Binance and Coinbase—then dumped ETH hard on the market, triggering an artificial crash. Meanwhile, they quietly bought back OTC at the bottom,” another said.

Crypto Twitter is now calling for the arrest of Wintermute’s team, with a screenshot from Polymarket that suggests a 97% chance of it happening. The poll can’t be found on Polymarket at the time of writing, however.

“Wintermute is cooked, and their CEO who cracks lamer jokes than my 7-year-old niece—might be heading to jail soon,” said one X user. “You can even bet on it now on Polymarket.”

Blockhead reached out to Wintermute for a comment but has not received a response.