Sonic Ends 5-Year Partnership with Market Maker Wintermute

By: bitcoin ethereum news|2025/05/16 09:45:05
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Sonic publicly revealed that it ended its five-year partnership with Wintermute. A few hours prior, the market maker dumped over $850,000 in S tokens, causing a 6% price drop. Wintermute was involved in a controversial token dump last month, but today’s events may be part of a normal business interaction. Sonic claimed no foul play, stating that the market maker sold token holdings to return loaned money. Wintermute and Sonic Part Ways Sonic (formerly Fantom) has been on an impressive run since launching its native token in January. It hit $1 billion in TVL in only 66 days, and continued its forward momentum with a Binance airdrop. However, Sonic’s price fell dramatically over the last few hours, as the market maker Wintermute began offloading around $857,000 in S tokens. Intel Scout, a Sonic ecosystem decoder, was the first to connect S’s price action with Wintermute’s token dumping. He claimed that the market maker sold around 3 million S tokens in 24 hours, and several other whales disposed of even more. Sonic’s anonymous Head of Strategy responded to these claims, revealing that the companies had split ways: 24 hours ago, we informed @wintermute_t that we will not be renewing our MM contract. We have been using WM exclusively for 5 years of service. We have engaged with other MM firms who are willing to provide MM++, they get involved in our DeFi ecosystem, engage with applications... — assistant.sonic (@SonicAssistant) May 15, 2025 Sonic’s Head of Strategy went on to state that the company was in talks with several market makers to replace Wintermute. Specifically, they claimed that CEX only support is “simply no longer enough,” and that this successor needs to proactively engage with Sonic’s DeFi ecosystem, community, apps, and developer team. Even if Sonic and Wintermute had an amicable breakup, this is not the market maker’s first controversy. In January, the firm faced accusations of market manipulation after $20 million in transactions with Binance. Last month, Wintermute’s token dump tanked ACT by 50%, only a few months after it partnered with the project. This also led to community outrage. Nonetheless, today’s actions have not caused a similar scandal yet. If Sonic was dissatisfied with Wintermute’s actions, the company could’ve addressed this, but it didn’t. It even gave a sympathetic reason for the token sales, explaining that Wintermute needed to return loaned funds. Wintermute, for its part, hasn’t said anything about the episode. Disclaimer In adherence to the Trust Project guidelines, BeInCrypto is committed to unbiased, transparent reporting. This news article aims to provide accurate, timely information. However, readers are advised to verify facts independently and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content. Please note that our Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, and Disclaimers have been updated. Source: https://beincrypto.com/wintermute-and-sonic-split-ways-token-dump/

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Mixin has launched USTD-margined perpetual contracts, bringing derivative trading into the chat scene.

The privacy-focused crypto wallet Mixin announced today the launch of its U-based perpetual contract (a derivative priced in USDT). Unlike traditional exchanges, Mixin has taken a new approach by "liberating" derivative trading from isolated matching engines and embedding it into the instant messaging environment.


Users can directly open positions within the app with leverage of up to 200x, while sharing positions, discussing strategies, and copy trading within private communities. Trading, social interaction, and asset management are integrated into the same interface.


Simplified Trading Experience: No KYC Required, Opening a Position in Five Steps


Based on its non-custodial architecture, Mixin has eliminated friction from the traditional onboarding process, allowing users to participate in perpetual contract trading without identity verification.


The trading process has been streamlined into five steps:

· Choose the trading asset

· Select long or short

· Input position size and leverage

· Confirm order details

· Confirm and open the position


The interface provides real-time visualization of price, position, and profit and loss (PnL), allowing users to complete trades without switching between multiple modules.


Social-Native Trading: Strategy and Execution Completed in the Same Context


Mixin has directly integrated social features into the derivative trading environment. Users can create private trading communities and interact around real-time positions:

· End-to-end encrypted private groups supporting up to 1024 members

· End-to-end encrypted voice communication

· One-click position sharing

· One-click trade copying


On the execution side, Mixin aggregates liquidity from multiple sources and accesses decentralized protocol and external market liquidity through a unified trading interface.


By combining social interaction with trade execution, Mixin enables users to collaborate, share, and execute trading strategies instantly within the same environment.


Referral Mechanism: Non-institutional users can receive up to 60% fee split


Mixin has also introduced a referral incentive system based on trading behavior:

· Users can join with an invite code

· Up to 60% of trading fees as referral rewards

· Incentive mechanism designed for long-term, sustainable earnings


This model aims to drive user-driven network expansion and organic growth.


Self-Custody Architecture and Built-in Privacy Mechanism


Mixin's derivative transactions are built on top of its existing self-custody wallet infrastructure, with core features including:


· Separation of transaction account and asset storage

· User full control over assets

· Platform does not custody user funds

· Built-in privacy mechanisms to reduce data exposure


The system aims to strike a balance between transaction efficiency, asset security, and privacy protection.


A New Path for On-Chain Derivatives


Against the background of perpetual contracts becoming a mainstream trading tool, Mixin is exploring a different development direction by lowering barriers, enhancing social and privacy attributes.


The platform does not only view transactions as execution actions but positions them as a networked activity: transactions have social attributes, strategies can be shared, and relationships between individuals also become part of the financial system.


Regulatory Background


Mixin's design is based on a user-initiated, user-controlled model. The platform neither custodies assets nor executes transactions on behalf of users.


This model aligns with a statement issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 13, 2026, titled "Staff Statement on Whether Partial User Interface Used in Preparing Cryptocurrency Securities Transactions May Require Broker-Dealer Registration."


The statement indicates that, under the premise where transactions are entirely initiated and controlled by users, non-custodial service providers that offer neutral interfaces may not need to register as broker-dealers or exchanges.


About Mixin


Mixin is a decentralized, self-custodial privacy wallet designed to provide secure and efficient digital asset management services.


Its core capabilities include:

· Aggregation: integrating multi-chain assets and routing between different transaction paths to simplify user operations

· High liquidity access: connecting to various liquidity sources, including decentralized protocols and external markets

· Decentralization: achieving full user control over assets without relying on custodial intermediaries

· Privacy protection: safeguarding assets and data through MPC, CryptoNote, and end-to-end encrypted communication


Mixin has been in operation for over 8 years, supporting over 40 blockchains and more than 10,000 assets, with a global user base exceeding 10 million and an on-chain self-custodied asset scale of over $1 billion.


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