Take YOUR Crypto Off CEXes NOW! Big Manipulations Happening

Over the last 24 hours, the crypto market crashed hard. There’s blood in the crypto streets. Bitcoin was down almost 5%. However, altcoins took a much harder hit and some were down 15% to 20%. My portfolio was down 10% today. That hurts, and we believe, more pain is on the way!

It seems some massive manipulation is happening in the market. This video is all about that and how you can protect your portfolio from more damage in the biggest market manipulation by CEXes witnessed ever.

What Is Happening?

So, here’s what’s happening. Alt season hasn’t happened yet. That’s because there’s not much liquidity available. I’m looking at my portfolio and instead of a 10x, it’s in the red. 

Source: Blockchain center

There are two main contributing factors to this,

Pump.fun extracted liquidity from the market. Some people got rich from memes. However, most people lost money on all the rugs and bad actors. Now, most money lost on memes is not coming back into the crypto market.

Furthermore, memes also add diversity to the market. There are too many coins. Picking a winner right now is much more difficult than during previous bull runs. In simple terms, during the last bull run there were 3 million coins, now there are 36 million.

Bitcoin ETFs are also part of the liquidity issue. The short version is that they are positive for Bitcoin adoption. However, no profits made on Bitcoin gains trickle into alts. Remember, with an ETF you don’t own the actual asset, the firm that offers the ETF owns the asset.

But there is more. There’s also market manipulation by big, centralized exchanges or CEXes. Here’s the short version of how this works. In a moment, I will dig deeper into the details. These CEXes, are sending funds to Wintermute. This is a market maker. In turn, Wintermute sells the assets on the spot markets of these exchanges. I’ve been following Marty Party on his X account. He came up with this theory, and he claims to have on-chain evidence to prove this as well.

In the last few weeks, he has shown evidence on his X account. This includes big name CEXes, like Binance, Kraken, and also ByBit. So, let’s dig in a little deeper.

The Evidence

Exchanges sending funds to Wintermute has been going on for months. Here’s a post from 28th January this year. 

The idea is to liquidate leveraged long or short positions. So, these are exchanges that offer perp options. In case you get liquidated, have a guess where that money goes? That’s right, into the coffers of the exchanges. 

This way they manipulate the markets. For example, if many users build up long positions on $ETH, the exchange sends $ETH to Wintermute. In turn, Wintermute now sells the $ETH on the spot market of that exchange. As a result, providing they sell enough $ETH, the long positions get liquidated due to leverage or hitting stop-losses. 

This works the same with other assets, like $BTC, $SOL, or stables. Often, exchanges send combinations of assets to Wintermute. In other words, even if we, retail, aren’t selling, the market maker draws the charts.

Most of these exchanges are offshore exchanges. In other words, they aren’t regulated. However, it’s not limited to offshore exchanges. Exchanges mentioned include Binance, Kraken, ByBit, OKX, MEXC, and Coinbase. So, there are also US-based exchanges involved. It seems that all or most exchanges that offer perps, are taking part.

For example, here’s a chart showing Binance sending $SOL to Wintermute. It shows how the charts fit. Apparently, Binance sent 1 million $SOL in this case. This helped to drop the $SOL price from well over $200 to where it is now, around $135. 

There are of course also other factors at work. This is not the only reason prices drop. Macro events like tariff wars also contribute. The current Trump government is causing a lot of worldwide market uncertainty. Check today’s video by Cody. However, it sure looks like these exchanges also have a hand in manipulating the markets.

What Can You Do?

Wintermute’s CEO, Evgeny Gaevoy, reacted on his X account to these allegations. He denies any wrongdoing. In a long thread, he explains how Wintermute works. However, in the comments, he catches a lot of heat. Most of the commenters seem to side with Marty Party.

So, that brings us to the next step, what can you do to protect yourself? The first and most important step is not to leave your assets on an exchange. 

Move your assets off the exchanges to your noncustodial wallets. Remember, not your keys, not your funds. Alternatively, you can use a DEX. See yesterday’s video, in which I discuss 4 popular DEX options. In general, you use a DEX with your noncustodial wallet. This way, your funds don’t remain on the exchange.

Now that we’re talking noncustodial wallets, your best option is to have a cold or hardware wallet. Hardware wallets keep your private keys offline. They are physical devices. You can see a few samples in a moment.

They are more secure than hot wallets. For instance, like MetaMask, Phantom, Keplr, or other popular hot wallet options. These hot wallets are directly connected to an app. They’re convenient, but not as secure as a hardware wallet.

Hardware Wallets

Some samples of hardware wallets are, for instance,

• Tangem.
• Ledger, who just released a touch screen version.
• SafePal.
• Bitbox.

Keep in mind that you are your own bank now. That means that you’re in control of your assets. However, this also brings responsibility with it. 

Like, if you lose your recovery phrase, you lose control over your assets. That’s why it’s a good consideration to have a seed phrase recovery tool. These are made of metal that can withstand water or fire damage.

So, what is your view on the market manipulation by these CEXes? Do you agree or do you side with Wintermute and the CEXes? And do you have a hardware wallet that you use? If so, which one? Let me know in the comments. Join us also in our social media discussions on Discord and X.

Disclaimer

The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers, and their risk tolerance may be different from yours.

We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments, so please do your due diligence.

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