Bitcoin short worth $735 million placed before Trump’s tariff news
Online analysts believe the person behind the trade was Garret Jin, a Hong Kong businessman best known as the founder of the now-closed crypto exchange BitForex, as per a report.
On Friday, October 10, Bitcoin’s price was around $68,000 before Trump’s remarks triggered a steep sell-off. When BTC fell below $60,000, the short position earned around $150 million in profit, as per a CCN report.
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Who is Garret Jin? The BitForex founder behind the massive crypto short
An online investigator known as EyeOnChain traced the address linked to the short to Jin, connecting it to his garrettjin.eth domain, as reported by CCN.
Jin gained attention in the crypto industry as the founder of BitForex, which shut down in 2024 after around $56 million in customer deposits disappeared, as per the report.By that time, Jin had already moved on, though several BitForex executives were detained and questioned by Chinese authorities before being released without charges, as per the CCN report.After BitForex, Jin founded several projects, including WaveLabs VC, TanglePay, GroupFi Protocol, and more recently, XHash, an institutional Ethereum staking platform, according to the report.
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Binance founder CZ amplifies insider trading accusations
The story gained major attention after Binance founder CZ shared EyeOnChain’s post on social media X, as reported by CCN. With CZ’s following of over 10 million users, the claims quickly spread, according to the report.
Garret Jin denies insider trading claims, cites data-driven strategy
Jin responded, saying, “Thanks for sharing my personal and private information. To clarify, I have no connection with the Trump family or @DonaldJTrumpJr — this isn’t insider trading,” as quoted by CCN.
He also said in a separate post that the funds used for the short trade belonged to clients, not himself, as reported by CCN.
Jin said the trade was based on economic analysis, not inside information, as per the report. He explained that markets had shown signs of being overbought and that US-China trade tensions had been increasing in the days leading up to Trump’s announcement, as reported by CCN.
He said, “We cannot predict when President Trump may retaliate against China, but our internal quantitative system has already raised risk alerts,” as quoted in the report.
FAQs
Who is Garret Jin?
Garret Jin is a Hong Kong businessman and the founder of the now-defunct crypto exchange BitForex.
Did Jin admit to insider trading?
No, he denied the accusation, saying his trade was based on market analysis, not private information.
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