Bitcoin’s violent crash cries “multi-billion dollar manipulation” as on-chain data catches one market maker red-handed
Bitcoin's sharp intraday volatility on December 29 suggests market manipulation due to repeated, aggressive buying followed by selling in thin holiday liquidity.Summary
Bitcoin experienced a violent crash on December 29, surging past $90,000 only to reverse gains within hours, leading traders to allege multi-billion dollar manipulation. On-chain data, specifically Binance's Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD), showed a distinct pattern: sharp spikes driven by aggressive buying, followed by equally sharp reversals driven by aggressive selling, leaving the net volume change flat. This V-shaped pattern, repeated across venues like Bitstamp and Bybit throughout December, suggests a sequence of pushing the price through order books to harvest stops before fading the move for profit. The thin liquidity during the holiday period made the market easy to push around for well-capitalized traders. While the data strongly indicates opportunistic manipulation and a structurally fragile, overleveraged market susceptible to stop-hunting, it does not definitively identify a specific orchestrator or prove coordinated intent beyond a reasonable doubt.
(Source：CryptoSlate)