Bloomberg: Wintermute wins approximately 76% of the priority data auction for Hyperliquid

According to Bloomberg, the crypto market maker Wintermute has become the main user of Hyperliquid's priority data auction mechanism. This mechanism allows traders to bid for the right to view incoming buy and sell orders before they are processed by the exchange, giving them a few milliseconds to adjust their quotes or hedge on other platforms.

Blockchain analytics platform Loris Tools found that in the past month, a wallet associated with Wintermute won about 76% of the highest priority data slot auctions.

This mechanism has raised questions about whether it favors large trading firms. DRW founder Don Wilson previously questioned whether it is fairer than the server hosting mechanisms of traditional exchanges and whether it can meet U.S. regulatory requirements.

The founder of Loris Tools believes that to fully leverage this speed advantage, direct connections to nodes operated by the Hyperliquid Foundation are necessary, and this access has trading volume and token staking requirements.

Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy stated that the auctions are more transparent than the low-latency networks and server hosting of traditional finance, and the company primarily uses this service for cryptocurrency trading. Hyperliquid Labs stated that anyone can participate in the bidding, and all priority fee payments are publicly recorded on-chain.