Bitcoin The price has recovered strongly since the October 10 crash, but not everyone is convinced.
One notable skeptic is a Bitcoin OG who made $200 million selling BTC ahead of the Oct. 10 sell-off, which was reportedly sparked by President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff announcement on China.
On Tuesday, the whale made a new bearish bet, quickly increasing it to a short position of $234 million in BTC through the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, according to data from Arkham. The liquidation price for this short is $123,000, the price at which the position will face a margin call and be forcibly closed by the exchange.
The new short position emerged as BTC’s price rally from the Oct. 10 low of around $104,000 stalled near $114,000 on Tuesday. The cryptocurrency has since retreated to $108,500, according to data from CoinDesk.
What happened on October 10?
Prices fell from around $122,000 to $104,000 on October 10, with most of the losses coming late in the day, after President Trump announced an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods on top of existing 30% tariffs.
The announcement followed China’s decision to tighten controls on rare earth exports, sending risk assets lower. The BTC sell-off was intensified by technical issues on Binance, which caused volatility in key tokens such as Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe.
Interestingly, the BTC whale opened a massive short position about 30 minutes before President Trump’s tariff announcement. The ensuing price drop generated significant profits for the trader and sparked accusations of insider trading.
