Market Anomalies Raise Suspicious
The recent cryptocurrency market crash that occurred on Friday night initially appeared to be a reaction to US President Donald Trump’s announcement of steep tariffs on China. However, new evidence suggests something more deliberate may have been at play. Trading pairs on Binance showed unusually deep price declines compared to other exchanges, which is technically quite difficult to achieve. This anomaly has led some researchers to suspect coordinated market manipulation.
According to community research, an attacker allegedly exploited vulnerabilities in the BNSOL/WBETH price oracle while simultaneously maintaining overleveraged positions in the USDe stablecoin. The same entity reportedly opened a massive short position on the Hyperliquid exchange, creating a perfect storm for market disruption.
The Mysterious Whale Behind the Move
Investigators have identified what they believe to be the orchestrator behind this event—a figure known as the Hyperliquid/Hyperunit whale. This individual reportedly holds over 100,000 BTC and recently executed a $4.23 billion swap from Bitcoin to Ethereum. The same address is also linked to a $735 million Bitcoin short position, which would have generated substantial profits during the market downturn.
On-chain analysis traced the activity to the Ethereum address ereignis.eth, which used garrettjin.eth as its alias. This connection led researchers to focus on Garrett Jin, a figure with extensive background in cryptocurrency exchanges.
Garrett Jin’s Crypto History
Jin’s history in the crypto space is extensive and somewhat controversial. He founded Da Yo Trading (HK) in 2012 and served as Director of Operations at Huobi (then HTX) until 2015. After his time at Huobi, he moved to Germany to start FuLang Medical GmbH.
Perhaps most notably, Jin served as CEO of BitForex exchange between 2017 and 2020. BitForex faced multiple controversies during this period, including accusations of volume manipulation. The exchange suffered a $57 million hack in 2024, after which it became inaccessible to users, froze customer funds, and reportedly saw employees detained by Chinese authorities.
Further research indicates that the Bitcoin addresses used in the recent market activity are linked to funds withdrawn from multiple major exchanges including HTX, OKX, ViaBTC, Bixin, and Binance between 7-8 years ago. This connection has raised suspicions about potential movement of funds previously associated with BitForex and Huobi.
Binance’s Response and Ongoing Questions
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) commented on the allegations with measured skepticism, stating: “I’m not sure about its validity. I hope someone can verify it.” His cautious response suggests that even within Binance, there may be uncertainty about what actually occurred.
Jin is also reportedly the founder of XHash, an institutional staking platform that some analysts have suggested could potentially legitimize funds from questionable sources. While these allegations remain unconfirmed, the timing and coordination of the market movements—beginning just before Trump’s statement—suggest this may have been more than typical market volatility.
The incident raises important questions about market integrity in decentralized finance. When large players can potentially manipulate prices across multiple platforms simultaneously, it challenges the notion of fair and transparent markets. The crypto community continues to investigate these claims, though definitive proof remains elusive.
What’s clear is that the traditional narrative of market reactions to political announcements may need reexamination. In crypto markets, where large positions can be leveraged across multiple platforms, the potential for coordinated manipulation exists in ways that traditional markets have more difficulty achieving.
