Wintermute's Founder Evgeny Gaevoy recently addressed the severe crypto market downturn on October 10, challenging the notion that Binance was responsible for the flash crash. Gaevoy argued that macroeconomic news on an overleveraged market during off-peak hours led to significant liquidations, rather than any single exchange's actions. The crash coincided with the imposition of tariffs on China by the United States, leading to a cascade of liquidations across the crypto sphere.
Meanwhile, OKX CEO Star Xu highlighted how Binance's USDe leverage strategies heightened systemic risk in the marketplace. Consumers repeatedly converted stablecoins like USDT to USDe, drawn by high yield promises, to re-leverage, creating a feedback loop that led to unsustainable artificial yields. The event caused broad liquidations, with the overall crypto market capital shrinking by 23.7% in Q4 2025 according to CoinGecko.
Gaevoy urged industry leaders to communicate more cautiously when discussing market crashes, emphasizing the importance of understanding the root causes over finding scapegoats, especially during periods of general bearish sentiment in the market.
