An anonymous trader has reportedly made an extraordinary $88 million profit by shorting Bitcoin just 30 minutes before a surprise tariff announcement by former U.S. President Donald Trump. This significant trade has ignited discussions around potential insider trading, with many questioning whether the trader had prior knowledge of the impending market impact.
Following Trump’s announcement of 100 percent tariffs on Chinese imports, Bitcoin experienced a dramatic 17 percent decline. This plunge was exacerbated by short-term holders who had purchased nearly 500 BTC at an alarming price of $122,000, only to find themselves victim to the subsequent crash.
In the days leading up to Trump’s announcement, substantial short positions were seen from prominent “whales” in the market, with on-chain data revealing billion-dollar bets placed on Bitcoin and Ethereum. The reasons behind these trades remain ambiguous, and it’s unclear whether the same whale executed them.
When the tariffs were officially announced, financial markets reacted swiftly, resulting in over $20 billion in liquidations, with Bitcoin’s staggering drop leading to the largest liquidation event in crypto market history, according to CoinGlass. This event wiped out over $19.1 billion in leveraged positions within just 24 hours, surpassing any previous market crash.
A comparison with past significant market drops reveals the sheer scale of this latest crash. The March 2020 COVID-related downturn resulted in approximately $1.2 billion in liquidations, and the November 2022 collapse of FTX resulted in about $1.6 billion. By contrast, the October 2025 crash tied to Trump’s tariffs represents nearly 20 times those losses in dollar terms. Notably, the data indicates that around 16.7 billion of the $19.1 billion in losses stemmed from long positions, underscoring that many traders had positioned themselves optimistically without adequate hedging.
The repercussions of this crash were dramatic; about 1.6 million trading accounts were liquidated, with exchanges automatically selling off collateral to cover losses. In a single hour post-announcement, over $7 billion worth of long positions were eliminated as stop-loss orders and margin calls triggered a cascading effect through the market.
Despite the severity of this incident, some analysts suggest that Bitcoin has historically shown a tendency to rebound quickly after sharp declines in October. In previous years, similar downturns were often followed by rapid recoveries, sometimes yielding gains of over 20 percent within a week.
As the cryptocurrency community grapples with the implications of these events, the conversation continues around market manipulation, insider information, and the inherent volatility of the cryptocurrency landscape.
