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Xinmei Shen

The global cryptocurrency industry is searching for the trader who made massive gains betting against bitcoin and ether, as the sector grapples with the aftermath of a market rout that wiped out US$19 billion last week.
While the crash on Friday liquidated more than 1.6 million traders within just 24 hours, some investors had profited handsomely – including one trader who earned nearly US$200 million from short positions on bitcoin and ether, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham.
Those trades, executed on the decentralised exchange Hyperliquid shortly before US President Donald Trump announced an additional 100 per cent tariff on all Chinese imports, have sparked a search for the person behind them and raised suspicions of insider trading.
Speculation on social media has ranged from Barron Trump, the youngest son of the US president, to Chinese cryptocurrency investor Garrett Jin, who served as CEO of the now-defunct crypto exchange Bitforex and was an operations director at Huobi, now known as HTX, according to Crunchbase.
Public scrutiny of Jin grew after Binance founder Zhao Changpeng shared on Sunday a blockchain analyst’s social media post that accused Jin of being the trader in question. The analyst, known by the handle “eyeonchains”, said the blockchain wallet address responsible for the bitcoin and ether short trades was linked to Jin.
In a social media response on Monday, Jin denied any connection to the Trump family or engagement in insider trading. He criticised Zhao for exposing his “personal and private information”.

The fund isn’t mine — it’s my clients’. We run nodes and provide in-house insights for them.
— Garrett (@GarrettBullish) October 13, 2025

However, Jin did acknowledge his association with the investors responsible for the short trade. “The fund isn’t mine – it’s my clients,” he said, without naming them. He explained that “we run nodes and provide in-house insights for them”.
In a series of follow-up posts, Jin elaborated on his “bearish insights” that led to the bets against the world’s two largest cryptocurrencies. US and Chinese tech stocks and major cryptocurrencies had all ”shown overbought signals” according to technical analyses, while trade tensions between China and the US had been escalating, he said.
Jin also criticised major crypto exchanges for offering traders “extreme” leverage on assets that lacked intrinsic value.
The search for the investor behind last week’s short trade highlights the murky and risky nature of the crypto market, despite the increasing integration of digital assets with traditional finance and their growing mainstream appeal.
During the crypto market rout on Friday, the Nasdaq dropped more than 3.5 per cent, while the S&P 500 fell over 2.7 per cent.
Digital assets faced some of the most violent price swings seen in the sector this year, with bitcoin reaching an all-time high of more than US$126,000 on October 6 before plummeting below US$110,000 on Friday.
On Tuesday, bitcoin rebounded to US$116,240 as of 4pm Hong Kong time.


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Speculation points to Chinese crypto investor Garrett Jin, who acknowledges his ties with the investors responsible for the short trade


Speculation points to Chinese crypto investor Garrett Jin, who acknowledges his ties with the investors responsible for the short trade.


Bitcoin crash sparks search for mystery crypto trader who profited US$200 million

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Speculation points to Chinese crypto investor Garrett Jin, who acknowledges his ties with the investors responsible for the short trade

Speculation points to Chinese crypto investor Garrett Jin, who acknowledges his ties with the investors responsible for the short trade