Binance, Kraken move large amounts of ETH and SOL in sales and position shifts

Binance and Kraken wallets have issued multiple transactions for Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). The market operators may reflect the recent deleveraging of blue-chip assets. 

Binance and Kraken wallets are posting multiple transactions, which suggest selling Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) at scale. On-chain analytics show a series of token shifts, of which the biggest part are directed at Wintermute. 

🚨 BREAKING:

Binance has also been selling large amounts of $SOL in the last few hours.

First $ETH, then $SOL. pic.twitter.com/99rWxGnosX

— Token Metrics (@tokenmetricsinc) February 24, 2025

In the past day, Binance was the first to send out ETH, followed by SOL, with some of the tokens reaching Wintermute’s wallets. Kraken also used a Binance deposit to reach Wintermute. The direction of the demand for tokens remains uncertain, as Wintermute itself is often recovering its asset allocations from markets. 

The coin moves, however, created panic as SOL sank to $158.70. SOL kept showing weakness ahead of its March 1 token unlocks. The recent transfers of SOL also resemble whale moves to “buy the dip.” 

Kraken followed, sending additional SOL and SUI. Together, the two exchanges sent $3.57M SOL to the Wintermute market maker, sparking fears of either crashing the price or another form of attempted market manipulation. 

The exchanges have not mentioned any special operations or the need for technical transfer of funds.

Other affected tokens include Official Trump (TRUMP). Previously, Wintermute has withdrawn funds from Binance, often redirecting its efforts. Wintermute is active on both centralized and decentralized exchanges. 

Following the shift of assets from Binance and Kraken, Wintermute continued its usual operations, supplying USDC and other assets to PancakeSwap and Uniswap. One of the known Wintermute addresses is currently highly active on Orca, Meteora, and Raydium. The market maker has affected the performance of meme tokens and may need additional SOL or ETH to continue its decentralized activity. The involvement of Wintermute may cause some assets to rally, creating additional risks after the market maker withdraws.

For its decentralized activities, Wintermute mostly resorts to USDC, especially for Meteora-based tokens. SOL and WSOL are also key to the market maker’s activities. 

Wintermute works to rebuild liquidity for Bybit

Some of the current transfers of ETH to Wintermute may be part of Bybit’s effort to rebuild its ETH liquidity. Wintermute has always been active with multiple assets, including meme tokens. 

One of the main reasons for the recent ETH transfers may be due to the need to organize fast buying due to increased demand. Previously, Wintermute was a top partner to Bybit, with a total of 785 transactions on seven leading chains. Wintermute has deposited a total of $178.88M to the exchange over time. 

Wintermute is also the second-largest counterparty to Kraken, with $242M in turnover. Kraken has also moved over $256.6M through Binance Deposit as its main counterparty wallet. 

Wintermute is also known to actively manage its token selection when liquidity is needed. The withdrawals from Binance may be redirected to other exchanges or DEX. 

Recent data shows Wintermute managed to supply over 34,743 ETH to Bybit. The hacked exchange had warned that sourcing ETH may be difficult, while Wintermute was capable in boosting the purchases without swaying the market too much. 

Can ETH and SOL selling liquidate long positions?

The immediate effect of ETH and SOL selling is still relatively limited. One of the expectations is that Kraken and Binance may be using Wintermute to liquidate long positions for the blue-chip assets. 

ETH open interest is still at $12.3B, with a 70% long ratio. ETH may be vulnerable, with relatively large long open positions down to the $2,600 range. 

SOL increased its open interest to over $2.8B, with over 79% in long positions. At this stage, SOL is even more vulnerable for sellers attacking the long positions and causing a liquidation cascade. SOL leveraged positions are vulnerable all the way to $152 if the market downturn continues. 

Traders are more cautious, and this time, the selling may not create a peak liquidation cascade. Despite this, the sell-off adds to the worsening market sentiment. For ETH, both crowd and smart money have turned cautiously bullish, after signs of increased demand and the rapid handling of the Bybit hack. 

SOL smart money is also cautiously bullish, but crowd traders tend to be more bearish. The Solana ecosystem is still sustained by leading meme tokens and the occasional winner but has lost its peak activity from January 20.

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