There has been a huge market dump these days. According to some beliefs, it was Trump who triggered them, first with the launch of his memecoin that drained capital from the rest of the altcoins (then dumping it), then with FOMC or the duties. In reality, for several weeks there have been many false movements (breakout: bear and bull trap), where both short and long are liquidated in turn. In the mind $BTC always remains in its 87-103k range.
However, there have also been unclear movements between Wintermute (market maker), Binance and Coinbase. Wintermute may have orchestrated coordinated operations with these two exchanges to influence prices and maximize profits through market manipulation. Below, this is what probably happened.

CIRCULAR TRADING
"Circular Trading" occurs when the same entities exchange assets between each other in a closed cycle. Example:

-Binance sells an asset to Wintermute.
-Wintermute sells the same asset to Coinbase.
-Coinbase sells back to Binance.

This process artificially increases trading volume without any real demand from real investors. Market makers can then dump large amounts of assets into the markets, creating excess supply over real demand. This causes:

-A price crash: too much supply over demand pushes the value down.
-Activation of stop-losses.
-Forced liquidations: traders with leveraged positions (margin trading) are liquidated, accelerating the price decline.

Once the price begins to fall, market makers can:

-Open short positions, betting on the falling price.
-Take advantage of panic by retail traders who sell at a loss.
-After making money from the shorts, buy the assets back at much lower prices.

CREATION OF FICTITIOUS VOLUME
According to some on-chain movements, Binance has moved $34.46 billion with Wintermute in the last 30 days. $15.16 billion has been sent from Binance to Wintermute. $19.3 billion was returned from Wintermute to Binance. These movements indicate a constant flow of assets between the two entities, which could be used to generate artificial trading volume without real demand.

DUMP AND BUY THE DIP
A concrete example of manipulation involves Solana ($SOL): Binance sent $32 million in $SOL to Wintermute. Wintermute sold these assets on the market, artificially lowering the price. It then bought back $SOL at a lower price and returned it to Binance in a larger amount than initially.
This process allows Binance and Wintermute to accumulate more $SOL at a lower cost, while retail traders and those with leveraged positions suffer significant losses (stop losses and liquidations).

COINBASE INVOLVEMENT AND ASSET DUMP
Since January 28, Binance has sent Wintermute: $275.8 million in assets ($BTC, $ETH, $SOL) but has only received $32 million in stablecoins. This suggests that Wintermute liquidated $250 million in crypto to push the market lower, forcing liquidations and stop-losses of many traders. On the other hand, Coinbase has sent $262.3 million in stablecoins to Wintermute, suggesting a possible buyback of the same cryptocurrencies sold by Binance at lower prices.

PROFIT FOR MARKET MAKERS
Binance and Coinbase send large amounts of BTC and ETH to Wintermute. Wintermute sells massively in the market, driving down prices. Leveraged position liquidations and stop-losses amplify the decline. Wintermute buys back the assets at lower prices using stablecoins. Finally, it returns more assets than it initially received, increasing its profit margin. This scheme not only allows you to accumulate more assets at a lower price, but also guarantees profits through short selling operations.

MANIPULATION AND DISTRUST
The artificial trading volume makes the market appear more active than it actually is. The dumping of assets creates panic among small investors and forced liquidations push the market further down.
Market makers buy back assets at bargain prices increasing their holding and manipulation capacity. Adding to this spiral of crashes are retails who sell in panic and trigger further crashes.
Market makers and large exchanges earn both on the decline (short) and on the rise (buy back at a discounted price). 

IS IT LEGAL OR NOT? MY CONSIDERATIONS
It should be taken into account that a market maker is here to make money. If you know how they work, you imagine that they also use arbitrage strategies, delta neutral and move where it is more convenient (both to buy and sell). If they did this only with their own forces by exploiting the general dump, they did not do anything illegal. In 2022 was it legal to exploit the favorable moment and short $Ust and $Luna? As long as these possibilities are out there, it means they are legit. If instead you have privileged information (Insider Trading) or if there have been agreements with Binance and Coinbase, well at that point I would talk about market manipulation.
The important thing to understand is that sudden drops could be strategic and not reflect the real supply/demand. It cannot be ruled out that these dumps were also orchestrated to get governments and other large funds to enter the market. This is a battle between retail traders and institutions with enormous resources...

#HODLSTRONG

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