Market maker Wintermute is holding approximately $190.8 million in net short positions on Hyperliquid, according to onchain data, with positions spanning Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, XRP and Hyperliquid's native token.
The firm's largest short is Ethereum at roughly $53 million, followed by Bitcoin at $30.7 million. Wintermute also holds $22.6 million in Solana shorts and $11.4 million in HYPE shorts. The XRP short position, valued at about $10.2 million, has moved into losses as XRP gained 49.5% over the past seven days. Across all positions, Wintermute currently carries approximately $5.85 million in unrealized losses.
Wintermute is one of the largest market makers in crypto derivatives, providing liquidity across multiple protocols and exchanges. Hyperliquid has emerged as a major decentralized perpetual futures platform, competing with centralized venues like Bybit and OKX on trading volume and feature set.
XRP's seven-day rally outpaces Bitcoin's performance over the same window. The token has climbed steadily through August following months of range-bound trading, driven partly by ongoing legal developments surrounding Ripple Labs and regulatory clarity in the United States. The timing of Wintermute's short positioning comes as retail and institutional traders have rotated capital into altcoins after the relative stability of summer markets.
Short positions of this size on Hyperliquid remain visible to other traders through the platform's onchain settlement layer, unlike opaque centralized exchange books. This transparency has made Hyperliquid a preferred venue for large traders comfortable with public position disclosure. Wintermute's position size relative to its typical daily hedging volumes will determine whether these shorts are tactical rebalancing moves or a directional thesis held over a longer window.
