Wintermute Holds $102M in Crypto Shorts With $38.5M Ethereum (ETH) Short Leading

Wintermute’s $102 Million Short Book

Market maker and trading firm Wintermute is carrying roughly $102 million in net short exposure across its crypto book, according to on-chain analysis of its estimated trading address, which begins with 0xecb. The wallet’s combined long and short positions total about $122.23 million, with an unrealized profit of approximately $928,400 — a slim cushion on a book of this size. The performance record is more telling: over the trailing 30 days the address has lost about $12.04 million, even as its cumulative profit since inception stands near $176.88 million. The single largest position in the book is a short on Ethereum (ETH) worth roughly $38.47 million, a substantial bearish bet against an asset trading near $2,513 at the time of writing. A trading volume-driven desk of Wintermute’s scale routinely runs hedged inventory, so a net short tilt of this magnitude suggests the firm is positioned for — or actively hedging client flow against — further downside. One caveat matters: the address is labeled an estimate based on on-chain fingerprinting, and Wintermute has not publicly confirmed the positions. Our reading of the data is that the direction is credible even if the exact sizing carries a margin of error. Still, when a market maker of this stature runs nine figures of net short exposure while Bitcoin (BTC) sits near $77,500, the signal is hard to dismiss.

Loracle’s $5.7 Million Short Turnaround

A sharply different bearish story is playing out at the whale level. The prominent on-chain trader known as Loracle has swung from deep losses to roughly $5.7 million in unrealized profit on short positions against the tokens PONS and CASHCAT, per on-chain data shared on X and visible through the Loracle-linked wallet on the perpetuals platform Hyperliquid. The math behind the reversal is stark: days earlier, a 17.79 million PONS short was sitting about $6.57 million underwater; as PONS sold off, the same trade had flipped to roughly $1.36 million in profit by September 10. As of September 14, Loracle still holds a 27.47 million PONS short valued near $14.3 million, alongside a 35.95 million CASHCAT short worth about $5.7 million, bringing total open short exposure to approximately $20 million. The trader has started taking partial profits on both positions but is keeping the core shorts open. Earlier in September, on-chain tracking identified Loracle as the largest short holder of both tokens, and the CASHCAT position was scaled up beyond 36 million tokens. Because both are thinly traded assets where tokenomics and liquidity depth drive outsized moves, the unrealized $5.7 million should not be read as locked-in profit — a sharp rebound in either token would unwind it quickly. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Bitget.

on-chain data shared on Xhttps://x.com/lookonchain/status/2099304255832375469

The common thread in our analysis is that sophisticated, well-capitalized traders are pressing downside bets rather than fading the decline: Wintermute’s nine-figure book and Loracle’s memecoin shorts both lean bearish across assets ranging from Ethereum to smaller-cap tokens, in a market where majors from Arbitrum (ARB) to NEAR Protocol have struggled to hold gains. Wintermute’s own $12.04 million 30-day drawdown shows how unforgiving this tape has been even for elite desks, while Loracle’s swing from a $6.57 million loss to a $5.7 million profit shows the reward for holding through adverse marks. With these shorts still open, they also represent latent fuel for a violent short squeeze if sentiment turns.