Cryptocurrency prices saw a sharp downturn on Sunday, driven by atypical weekend volatility and reports that prominent market maker Wintermute had established heavy short positions.
Bitcoin dipped to $75,500 after failing to maintain its position above $77,000 over the weekend. The decline followed a remarkable weekly surge that had taken the asset from $64,000 to nearly $80,000 in less than 48 hours. Although Bitcoin found some support and recovered above $76,000, it remained down 2% on the day.
Major altcoins suffered heavier losses. Ethereum dropped 5% to fall well below $2,400, while XRP declined by 6.5%, falling back below $1.50 after being rejected near $1.70.
The market correction coincided with analytics data from Onchain Lens indicating that Wintermute sent approximately $60 million in Bitcoin and Solana to Binance and Coinbase, reportedly with the intention to sell. Furthermore, tracking revealed that Wintermute built a massive futures position on Hyperliquid, consisting of $146.19 million in short positions compared to just $13.85 million in long positions.
According to CoinGlass data, nearly $100 million in long positions were liquidated within a single hour, with Bitcoin and Ethereum accounting for roughly $41.5 million each. Total daily liquidations surpassed $350 million, affecting more than 90,000 traders.
