Bitcoin News Today: Bitcoin Short Before Trump Tariff Sparks Debate Over Market Transparency

Garrett Jin, former CEO of the defunct crypto exchange BitForex, has denied allegations linking him to a $735 million Bitcoin short position executed just before U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of a 100% tariff on China. The trade, which occurred less than an hour before Trump's Friday, October 10, remarks, coincided with a sharp drop in Bitcoin's price to around $102,000 from $124,000 ecoinimist.com^[1]. Jin, in a public post on X, asserted he had "no connection with the Trump family" and denied insider trading, stating the wallet in question belonged to a client cryptotimes.io^[2].

The controversy emerged after pseudonymous crypto researcher Eye alleged Jin controlled the Hyperliquid whale wallet, which held over 100,000 BTC (worth approximately $11 billion at current prices). Eye linked the wallet to Jin via Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains, including garrettjin.eth, which connects to his verified X account cointelegraph.com^[3]. Jin criticized former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao for retweeting the allegations to over 10 million followers, calling the sharing of personal information "unhelpful" economictimes.indiatimes.com^[4].

Blockchain analysis revealed the wallet had previously executed a $4.23 billion BTC-to-ETH rotation and staked over 570,000 ETH through Jin's company, XHash. However, the only direct financial link between Jin and the short position was a 40,000 USDT transfer, with critics arguing the evidence is circumstantial cryptonews.com^[5]. Notably, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT suggested the trades may have been conducted by "a friend of Jin," while analyst Quinten Francois described the connections as "too convenient" btcpeers.com^[6].

The incident has reignited debates over market transparency in decentralized trading platforms. Similar allegations of insider trading have surfaced previously, such as a $482,000 profit from Bubb (BUBB) memecoin trades and a $6 million purchase of Trump's official TRUMP token minutes after its launch financefeeds.com^[7]. Despite Jin's denials, the timing of the short position has fueled speculation about pre-announcement knowledge, though no regulatory investigations have been confirmed.

The crypto community remains divided. While some view the trades as evidence of opaque market behavior, others argue the accusations lack concrete proof. Jin has not provided further details on his trading strategies but has emphasized his fund's reliance on "economic analysis" rather than insider information coindesk.com^[8].