Previous Big Bitcoin Short: One trader shorted Bitcoin minutes before Trump’s tariff post, booking around $160 million to $200 million.
Ai, the cryptocurrency investigator who helped build the story by tracking the wallets and suggesting Garrett Zinn could be a front for a broader network, has now stepped back, citing security concerns.
Eye has suspended its work on the Bitcoin short-selling scandal following unsubstantiated claims that a network associated with World Liberty Financial was involved in the transactions.
Before its exit on October 14, Ai developed the view that wallets tied to Garrett Zinn may have been a conduit for transmitting information from insiders to traders who could build advantageous positions on policy timing.
“Garrett doesn’t seem to be the main character. He’s probably just a frontman, but this was the starting point for tracking down the real insider trading ring…”
The key information given to the HL whale most likely came from a group of insiders who have long exploited classified information from White House rumors and prior official announcements. ”
Those named include World Liberty Financial co-founders Zach Witkoff and Chase Herro, who have ties to Donald Trump Jr., as well as claims that the leaker may have passed the information on to parties other than Jin, reinforcing the “front” theory.
The WLFI token’s 30% drop in the hours before the tariff announcement, at a time when Bitcoin was down just 3%, also raised eyebrows in the industry.
Ai said it was ceasing future publications because it had “digged too deep”, leaving open the question of who, if anyone, had access to the details of the non-disclosure policy.
The controversy stems from President Trump’s trade shorting Bitcoin on Hyperliquid minutes before the October 11 tariff post, an episode we covered in previous coverage.
During this move, liquidations across the venue reached approximately $19 billion in 24 hours, with HyperLiquid reporting widespread account losses.
According to CoinGlass, Wipeout ranked at the top of the historic single-day dollar total. CoffeeZilla also analyzed the trades, focusing on the final addition to the short set at 20:49 GMT and the tariff post set at 20:50 GMT, but that one-minute difference continues to frame the debate over what traders knew and when they sized their positions.
Mr. Jin has denied and repeatedly denied the insider story. He said the capital belongs to his customers, his team runs the nodes and provides internal insights, and has no connection to the Trump family.
He also criticized Binance co-founder Qiao Changpeng for spreading Eye’s initial buzz to a large audience, thanked CZ for “sharing my personal and private information,” and argued that the shorts were macro and technical calls rather than trades based on private cues.
What is interesting is that Jin deleted a tweet denying any relationship with President Trump. The full post said:
“Hello @cz_binance, thank you for sharing my personal information. To be clear, I have no connection to the Trump family or @DonaldJTrumpJr. This is not insider trading.”
He also said, “There aren’t that many conspiracies in this world. Please stop making excuses for your own ignorance and lack of expertise.”
Jin presented five issues that he claims have influenced his positioning, citing overbought signals across US tech, Chinese A-share tech, and major crypto pairs, the positive correlation between cryptocurrencies and US tech, the shift in US-China trade posture from September 26th to October 11th, the significant shift from risk-on to risk-off, and the high leverage across the market that could force a wave of deleveraging reminiscent of previous years. Crashes.
He added calls for a “stability fund” at major venues. He argued that extreme leverage on assets without cash flow backing increases the likelihood of chaotic price movements regardless of direction.
Commentator Quinten Francois questioned why the wallets allegedly used for market movements were mapped directly to public identities through ENS passes, calling this trail too convenient and cautioning against overfitting in social graphs built from a small number of hops.
Attorney John E. Deaton moved the discussion to a formal review, saying that if the allegations are true, regulators should investigate the transactions.
The wallet believed to be Jin’s is not quiet.
By October 13, the account had added a new Bitcoin short with approximately $496 million in notional amount at 10x leverage, with a defined liquidation level of around $124,270.
The tracker shows millions of dollars in unrealized gains between $114,000 and $117,000 spot. Two other hyperliquid whales opened approximately $182 million in new shorts in major and large altcoins during the same period.
The history of gin is also attracting attention.
He ran BitForex from 2017 to 2020. The exchange was shut down in February 2024 after tens of millions of dollars were leaked from hot wallets and users reported having their balances frozen.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency previously cited BitForex as operating without registration, and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission issued a warning as problems mounted.
Since then, regional press coverage has listed a series of ventures launched after BitForex, followed by a focus on institutional staking projects. After Eye’s thread gained attention, observers noted that Jin changed his public profile on the social platform, removing some references to the project and adjusting his privacy settings.
The regulatory framework remains unresolved.
Bitcoin is regulated with respect to derivatives by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission handles securities cases. This division impacts any potential actions that revolve around trading in material non-public information.
As of October 15th, no US market regulator or law enforcement agency has announced any investigation or public investigation into the October 11th transaction.
Regarding WLFI’s perspective, previous public comments from the parties rejected claims of conflict of interest as “nonsense.” None of the names cited by Eye issued new statements regarding the network’s allegations during this period.
To highlight the key facts since October 11, below are the key numbers and timestamps referenced in the public documents.
| item | detail |
|---|---|
| Final short ad and tariff post | 20:49 GMT order, 20:50 GMT post |
| Liquidation within 24 hours | Approximately $19 billion in total cryptocurrencies |
| New BTC short opens on October 13th | Approximately $496 million notional amount, 10x, liquid. $124,270 |
| Unrealized P&L October 14th | Approximately $4-5.7 million, BTC approximately $114,000-117,000 |
| Other super liquid whales | Approximately $182 million in new short films across the majors. |
| Investigator status | Eyes stop posting and claim safety |
The same dashboard that guided our original note continues to apply to market structure over the next 2-6 weeks.
The direction of open interest and funding rates across Bitcoin perpetual machines remains the first step in determining whether leverage is being rebuilt or if the market is still being purified.
Exchange stablecoin flows may pre-empt demand for added risk on major exchanges.
Stock futures and the dollar around tariff headlines continue to paint an intraday range for cryptocurrencies during the trade policy news cycle.
Live panels of open interest, funding, and venue balances are available through data providers such as CoinGlass.
What remains unknown is central to how this story unfolds.
Jin does not identify the customers behind Capital. The pathways linking public identities to the ereignis.eth and garrettjin.eth trails have not been clarified to the point that would put an end to the attribution debate.
Non-Social Sources has not independently verified Eye’s WLFI allegations, and the named parties have not issued any new statements addressing the allegations within the investigation period.
U.S. regulators have not filed a lawsuit or commented publicly on the Oct. 11 transaction.