2025-12-26 07:23:34

A major exchange's BTC/USD1 trading pair experienced an extreme event yesterday, with a scale reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. What exactly happened?

Some traders, during the period of lowest liquidity, first placed a $18 billion BTC short position. Immediately after, the operator used a market order to directly smash the order book on a deeply shallow trading pair—causing BTC to be instantly pushed down, with buy orders almost completely disappearing.

The price broke through support levels, triggering a chain reaction of long liquidations, further dragging the market down, with the lowest price even dropping to around $24,000. The total liquidation amount for this wave exceeded $7 billion. As for how much the operator profited, no one has clarified yet.

The exchange's official response came: this is not a criminal act, nor manipulation, just a price distortion caused by insufficient liquidity; the market has exaggerated the issue. The system itself was not attacked, and no illegal operations were found.

But can this explanation be convincing? Is the combination of an $18 billion short and extreme smash operations truly a coincidence, or is someone carefully testing the market depth? Poor liquidity can indeed amplify volatility, but is this magnitude too extreme?

BTC-1,3%

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ForkInTheRoad

· 8h ago

18 billion short positions + market dump, this operation sequence is too textbook. If you say it's a coincidence, I really don't believe it. Directly dumping 7 billion in liquidation volume? Bro, that's outrageous, and the exchange's statement is even more slick. It's either lack of liquidity or no violations, but why at this specific time? A full-scale operation, just to see how much wool can be pulled. With this price crash, who profits and who loses is obvious, but the exchange refuses to disclose a figure? Why bother like this? Just publish the operator’s profit details. This is just a test, testing how shallow the depth really is. The operator's guts are really big, 18 billion can be dumped just like that, not even blinking an eye. Lack of liquidity can explain everything? Then just close the trading pair altogether. Feels like another "optimization announcement" is coming, a micro-adjustment and then nothing changes.

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SerumDegen

· 8h ago

nah the exchange's "just liquidity issues bro" take is pure copium... $180B short + market order nuke into ghost book doesn't pass the smell test lmao

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LiquiditySurfer

· 8h ago

18 billion short positions + extreme market manipulation, the exchange claims liquidity is insufficient... alright, I believe you are full of crap --- This is the ultimate test of market-making principles, LPs are just watching the show sipping Martini --- Deeply shallow to this extent and still dare to use market orders? Either a test or someone playing with fire --- 70 billion liquidation volume, and the exchange still talks so lightly, truly impressive --- Clearly a carefully arranged wave, insisting it's just a coincidence... I laughed --- Lack of liquidity is the reason, but it's not an excuse, everyone --- This magnitude is indeed excessive, all of us surfing can see through it

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PretendingSerious