The Crypto Market Shaken by a Trader with Uncanny Timing

A trader operating on the decentralized platform Hyperliquid reportedly pocketed over 150 million dollars by betting against the market a few minutes before a major political announcement triggered a crypto crash. The operation, as spectacular as it is unsettling, revives suspicions of insider trading. A few days later, the same player opens a new short position of 160 million, fueling speculation about his identity and access to information.

A lucrative maneuver against the backdrop of a crypto crash

On Friday evening, barely a minute before Donald Trump posted a message on X (formerly Twitter) announcing the imposition of new 100% tariffs on Chinese imports , a Hyperliquid account opened two huge short positions on Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Analyst Specter indicates that this trader invested 80 million dollars on BTC and 30 million on ETH, betting against the market while the majority of players were taking long positions. This initiative preceded Trump’s tweet by exactly one minute, triggering a sharp crypto market drop.

Data from HypurrScan show that this operation generated colossal gains, estimated at nearly 158 million dollars. This spectacular success occurred while the majority of investors suffered significant losses, especially on long positions. Here are the key factual elements of this sequence:

• The timing of the trade: short positions opened 1 minute before Trump’s tweet announcing the new taxes;

• The amounts involved: $80M on BTC, $30M on ETH;

• The immediate consequence: a crash causing massive liquidations on centralized and decentralized platforms, including Hyperliquid;

• The profit made: nearly $158M in combined gains on the two positions.

The synchronized nature of this operation with the US political announcement, coupled with the magnitude of the amounts involved, instantly captured observers’ attention. However, no formal evidence of privileged access to information has been presented at this stage.

A new short position of $160M and speculation about Garrett Jin

A few days after this first high-profile move, the same trader opened a new short position on Bitcoin . The wallet involved injected 16 million dollars in collateral, using 10x leverage to reach a notional exposure of 160 million dollars.

Entry into the market was made at a price of $117,370, with a liquidation price set at $123,500, which is below the previous ATH of $126,080 . Thus, the position is in latent profit of over 4 million dollars, while Bitcoin trades around $114,711. This new move reignites questions about the trader’s intentions and his level of information on macroeconomic or political dynamics.

Alongside this second operation, some on-chain analysts tried to identify the author of these spectacular bets. Analyst Eye mentions a connection between the crypto wallet used for the positions and Garrett Jin, former CEO of the now-defunct BitForex platform.

According to Eye, an address that interacted with the whale’s wallet transferred 40,000 USDT to an ENS wallet named “ereignis.eth”, also associated with the name “garrettjin.eth”. However, these hypotheses have been largely downplayed by other experts.

Garrett Jin’s name also appeared on Polymarket, in connection with a bet on a possible presidential pardon by Donald Trump of Changpeng Zhao (CZ) , former CEO of Binance. According to Emmett Gallic, an analyst active on X, Jin holds $40,000 worth of shares on this prediction, whose value recently jumped 39%, generating a latent gain of $11,136.

The current position, opened in a climate of heightened distrust, could also have ripple effects. If the bearish bet continues to generate profits, it could encourage other crypto traders to adopt a similar stance, increasing pressure on the Bitcoin price .