Melvin Capital, the hedge fund at the center of the GameStop drama, lost 53 percent in January but received commitments for fresh cash from investors in the last days of the month, a source familiar with the fund said on Sunday.

Melvin ended January with more than $8 billion in assets after having started the year with roughly $12.5 billion in assets, the source said.

The firm, founded in 2014 by Gabe Plotkin, had bet that ailing video game retailer GameStop's stock, which traded at less than $5 five months ago, would fall. But a wave of retail investors, comparing notes on social media platform Reddit and using online trading app Robinhood, took the other side of Plotkin's trade to send the stock up 1,625 percent this month to close at $325 on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the loss.

Hedge funds Point72 Asset Management and Citadel gave a $2.75 billion capital infusion to Melvin Capital earlier in the week, enabling it to close out that position with a large loss.

"The fund's portfolio liquidity is strong. Use of leverage is at the lowest level since Melvin Capital's inception in 2014," the source said.

Citadel lost less than 1 percent on its Melvin position in its flagship fund in January, a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

On Friday, Citron Research's Andrew Left, who spent two decades building his brand as one of the world's best-known short-sellers, turned his back on publicly detailing companies' shortcomings, following an intense backlash against him and others who said video retailer GameStop's stock was not worth its price.

"We saw the might of a new investor base, in terms of their ability to shape not just the fortunes of an individual stock but the fortunes of a large market segment like the Russell 2000," said Sunil Krishnan, head of multi-asset funds at Aviva Investors.

Amid the wild price fluctuations, the amount of position covering last week by U.S. hedge funds, buying and selling, was the highest since the financial crisis more than a decade ago, according to an analysis by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Nevertheless, their market exposure to stocks is still near record levels, the investment bank warned.

"According to Goldman Sachs Prime Services, this week represented the largest active hedge fund de-grossing since February 2009. Funds in their coverage sold long positions and covered shorts in every sector," the investment bank wrote in a note late on Friday.

As news of losses at many hedge funds spread in recent days, speculation mounted about which firms might be forced to shut their doors. Several investors and fund managers said clients have been more patient with certain firms that have a long and strong track record, likely allowing them to survive this month's deep losses.