Bitcoin Prices have 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 October 10 selloff, which was reportedly triggered by President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff announcement on China.
On Tuesday, the whale placed a new bearish bet, quickly increasing it to a $234 million short position in BTC via decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, according to Arkham data. The liquidation price of this short sale is $123,000, at which price the position will face a margin call and be forcefully closed by the exchange.
The new short position appeared as BTC’s price rally from the October 10 low of around $104,000 stalled near $114,000 on Tuesday. Since then, the cryptocurrency has returned to $108,500, according to CoinDesk data.
What happened on October 10?
Prices plunged from around $122,000 to $104,000 on October 10, with most of the losses occurring late in the day after President Trump announced additional 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, on top of existing 30% tariffs.
The announcement follows China’s decision to tighten controls on rare earth exports, pushing risky assets lower. The BTC sell-off was intensified by technical issues at Binance, which triggered volatility in key tokens like Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe.
Interestingly, the BTC whale opened a massive short position approximately 30 minutes before President Trump’s tariff announcement. The subsequent price drop generated significant profits for the trader and sparked allegations of insider trading.
