of bitcoin The price has recovered strongly since the October 10 crash, but not everyone is convinced.
One notable skeptic is Bitcoin OG, who made $200 million by shorting BTC ahead of the October 10 selloff, which was reportedly prompted by President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff announcement on China.
According to data from Arkham, whales made a new bearish bet on Tuesday, quickly increasing their short position to $234 million on BTC via decentralized exchange Hyperliquid. The liquidation price for this short is $123,000, the price point at which the position would face a margin call and be forcibly closed out by the exchange.
The new short position emerged as BTC’s price rally from the Oct. 10 low $104,000 stalled near $114,000 on Tuesday. Since then, the cryptocurrency has recovered to $108,500, according to CoinDesk data.
What happened on 10th October?
Prices fell from about $122,000 to $104,000 on October 10, with the most losses occurring after President Trump announced an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods, in addition to the existing 30% tariff.
The announcement followed China’s move to tighten controls on rare earth exports, reducing riskier assets. The BTC selloff intensified due to technical issues at Binance, which triggered volatility in major tokens like Athena’s synthetic dollar USDE.
Interestingly, BTC whales opened massive short positions approximately 30 minutes before President Trump’s tariff announcement. The ensuing price drop netted significant profits for the trader and led to allegations of insider trading.