Garrett Jin, the former CEO of now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange BitForex, has denied many of the claims levied against him by a pseudonymous online sleuth that involved shorting the market.
In a Monday X post, Jin said he had “no connection with the Trump family,” denying allegations of insider trading after crypto researcher Eye claimed he controlled a wallet address used by a whale to short Bitcoin (BTC).
The wallet was used to open a short position less than an hour before US President Donald Trump announced “a tariff of 100% on China” on Friday, likely contributing to the price of the cryptocurrency dropping significantly.
On Saturday, Eye suggested on X that Jin was a Hyperliquid whale who controlled more than 100,000 BTC. In his response, Jin said the wallet belonged to a client and criticized former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao for sharing “personal and private information” by retweeting Eye’s post to his more than 10 million followers.
Whether tied directly to Jin or not, the wallet address was used to open a $735 million short on BTC. The price of Bitcoin briefly fell to about $102,000 on Friday after the tariff notice, though the president said in a Sunday social media post, “don’t worry about China,” walking back some of his remarks.
Related Developments
Despite the alleged connections between Jin and the now infamous Bitcoin wallet, some online sleuths doubt Eye’s claims. ZachXBT said on Saturday that it was more likely “a friend of Jin” was responsible for the trades, while crypto analyst Quinten Francois suggested the evidence linking the former CEO to the wallet was too convenient.
Insider Trading Claims Are Not New for Crypto
Many individuals in the crypto exchange have previously been accused of having private information about a project launch following suspiciously timed trades.
In March, an unknown individual or group made more than $482,000 through trades on the Bubb (BUBB) memecoin shortly before the price dropped by about 50%.
Trump’s memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), drew similar attention in January after a wallet purchased about $6 million of the token less than a minute after its launch.