Wintermute CEO Denies Collapse Rumors
Evgeny Gaevoy, co-founder and CEO of Wintermute, denied rumors that his company had gone bankrupt after the crypto market crash on October 10. On X (formerly Twitter), Gaevoy said that everything was “business as usual” and that Wintermute was “perfectly fine.”
The rumors started on social media, with many users claiming that Wintermute was “rekt” or wiped out due to large-scale liquidations during the market crash. Some critics accused big trading firms, including Wintermute, of manipulating the market as crypto prices dropped sharply.
Analysts also noted that Wintermute’s fast sell-offs and shifting liquidity might have made the crash worse. They suggested that the firm’s aggressive trading behavior could mean it had deeper financial exposure.
Massive Market Losses
The flash crash erased more than $19 billion in leveraged crypto positions within 24 hours, according to data from Coinglass. Around 1.6 million traders were liquidated, and one platform, Hyperliquid, accounted for about $10 billion of those losses.
This led to anger among retail traders, who accused big players and exchanges of colluding against smaller investors. The situation even drew comments from Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the former CEO of Binance.
Public Reactions and Skepticism
Many people on X compared Gaevoy’s statements to past reassurances from failed crypto leaders — like Sam Bankman-Fried before FTX collapsed and Do Kwon before Terra’s crash.
Gaevoy acknowledged the criticism, saying that being accused during crises is part of being a CEO in crypto. He admitted that while transparency is important, changing public opinion in such moments is difficult.
He summed it up by saying:
“If I don’t tweet, people think I’m liquidated. If I do tweet, they say that’s exactly what someone liquidated would say.”
