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12 hours ago
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BTC has pulled back sharply from Tuesday's high of around $114,000.
Oct 22, 2025, 4:38 a.m.
Bitcoin’s BTC$108,461.74 price has made a strong recovery since the October 10 crash, but not everyone is convinced.
One notable skeptic is a Bitcoin OG who earned $200 million by shorting BTC ahead of the October 10 sell-off, which was reportedly sparked by President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff announcement on China.
On Tuesday, the whale placed a new bearish bet, swiftly increasing it to a $234 million short position on BTC via the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, according to data from Arkham. The liquidation price for this short is $123,000, the price point 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 about $104,000 stalled near $114,000 on Tuesday. Since then, the cryptocurrency has pulled back to $108,500, according to CoinDesk data.
What happened on Oct. 10?
Prices plunged from around $122,000 to $104,000 on October 10, with most losses occurring late in the day after President Trump announced an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods, on top of the existing 30% tariffs.
The announcement followed China’s move to tighten controls on rare earth exports, pushing risk 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 about 30 minutes before President Trump’s tariff announcement. The ensuing price crash generated significant profits for the trader and sparked allegations of insider trading.
AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
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