Wintermute： Nearly $3 billion in long positions recently liquidated, intensifying market concerns over trade war

According to BlockBeats, on March 4th, cryptocurrency market maker Wintermute released a market research report stating that the cryptocurrency market's decline accelerated when Trump announced new tariff policies, fueled by recent outflows of ETF funds, concerns about SOL unlocking, and liquidity issues from Bybiy being hacked, exacerbating trade war concerns. Market risk aversion has begun to intensify, with nearly $3 billion in long leveraged positions being liquidated. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently significantly reduced its enforcement actions against cryptocurrency companies, including agreeing to withdraw its lawsuit against Coinbase; End the investigation into OpenSea; End the investigation into the listing of Robinhood cryptocurrency; Suspend the investigation of Uniswap convenience class unregistered securities; End the investigation into Gemini's revenue plan over the past two years; This regulatory unfreezing marks a significant reversal from the previous government's approach, and the SEC appears to be reassessing its stance on the cryptocurrency industry. The net outflow of Bitcoin ETF hit a record high, with a outflow of $2.5 billion last week, including a single day outflow of $1 billion, bringing the total outflow in February to $3.3 billion (compared to the previous record of $343 million set in April 2024). The CME futures basis has dropped from 22% in December to the lowest 4% last week, significantly reducing the profitability of the basis trading strategy. Futures indicators reflect this shift: holdings have decreased to $13 billion and monthly trading volume has dropped to $247 billion, both at their lowest levels since October 2024. The significant reversal in the market after Trump announced the "Crypto Strategic Reserve" on Sunday reveals that the crypto market is now highly sensitive to administrative signals. The market reaction exceeded the actual content of the announcement, which largely reaffirmed the administrative order of January. The lifting of the Bitcoin ETF arbitrage strategy highlights the increasingly close integration between the traditional market and the cryptocurrency market, with both sides now responding quickly to each other's movements. With the expansion of institutional encryption products and platform services, these cross market dynamics and user activity competitions may intensify.