Bitcoins price has rebounded strongly since the October 10 crash, but not everyone is convinced.
One notable skeptic is a Bitcoin OG who made $200 million shorting BTC ahead of the Oct. 10 selloff, which was reportedly triggered by President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff announcement against China.
On Tuesday, the whale placed a new bearish bet and quickly increased it to a $234 million short position on BTC via the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, according to data from Arkham. The liquidation price for this short is $123,000, the price point at which the position will face a margin call and be forced out by the exchange.
The new short position emerged as BTC’s price rally from an October 10 low of around $104,000 stalled near $114,000 on Tuesday. Since then, the cryptocurrency has pulled back to $108,500, according to CoinDesk data.
What happened on October 10?
Prices fell from around $122,000 to $104,000 on October 10, with most of the losses occurring late in the day after President Trump announced an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods on top of the existing 30% tariff.
The announcement followed China’s move to tighten controls on rare earth exports, pushing down risk assets. The BTC selloff was intensified by technical issues at Binance, which triggered volatility in key tokens such as Athena’s synthetic dollar USDe.
Interestingly, the BTC whale opened a massive short position about 30 minutes before President Trump’s tariff announcement. The subsequent price crash generated significant profits for the trader and sparked accusations of insider trading.
