Let’s imagine you’re cruising through your crypto portfolio, feeling like the big boss of your own little Wall Street.
Then boom! Market trembles, giants change course, and suddenly everything’s a gamble.
Wintermute, that big-time crypto market maker, is playing a serious defensive game, and you gotta know if your crypto stash is in their sights.
🚨 @wintermute_t still leaning bearish on @HyperliquidX — only 4 material longs, all else short via @nansen_ai 📉📊
Total Open Positions: $123.44M
🟢 Long: 30.13%
🔴 Short: 69.87%PnL: +$17.8M 🟢
Top Long Positions (leverage, size, ROI):
1️⃣ Long $BTC (20x) — $10.38M, +13.95%…— Chyan | chyan.base.eth (@Chyan) August 3, 2025
Shorting Trump
Wintermute ain’t just tinkering around. They’ve got nearly 70% of their massive $123 million portfolio stacked on short positions across ten cryptocurrencies. They’re basically telling the market, hey, I’m expecting trouble ahead.
Of course, they’re holding a handful of long positions too, Bitcoin, Sui, Dogecoin, and even the S&P 500, but those are like the small fries compared to the bulk of their bearish bets. The question is they are right?
And listen to this, their shorts against Trump’s memecoin and Ripple’s XRP have crushed it, bringing back 128% and 78% return.
That’s strategy, my friend. Wintermute’s sharp glare is locked on the downside, flexing muscle while the market wobbles.
Risky business
What does this mean? It’s a loud vote of no confidence in the altcoin circus. They’re heavily shorting major players like Ethereum, Solana, and Curve DAO, signaling they expect these altcoins to stumble soon.
Ethereum shorts alone are about $26 million with a strong conviction behind them, a near-27% return on that bet.
The small-cap tokens? That’s where Wintermute’s playing a high-stakes game. They’re aiming at volatile, risky meme and low-liquidity coins like Fartcoin and Pump.fun.
Think of it like the office gossip spreading rumors you know won’t pan out, but someone’s buying into it anyway. Wintermute’s taking positions that protect them from those swings.
Dark turn?
Now, experts say Wintermute’s shorts in retail-favorite tokens like Trump’s memecoin, Fartcoin, and Pump.fun suggest smart money’s setting traps when retail enthusiasm spikes.
Open Interest surges in these coins aren’t just random noise, in fact, they could be the signs of a selloff party waiting to happen.
Until crypto giants like Bitcoin and Ethereum show serious weakness by flipping funding rates negative, derivatives traders might keep playing optimistic.
But if and when that happens, Wintermute’s heavy short positions might just confirm the market’s dark turn.
Cryptocurrency and Web3 expert, founder of Kriptoworld
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With years of experience covering the blockchain space, András delivers insightful reporting on DeFi, tokenization, altcoins, and crypto regulations shaping the digital economy.
