4 Comments

Can you restate “they're waiting for one side of the market to get completely offside on perps and then just blow it out with their spot holdings” for the non-finance person, please?

Expand full comment

I think the writer meant that the whales are waiting for retail (small) investors to go significantly long or short in perpetual contracts (perps, similar to futures), so that they, as whales, can massively buy or sell their spot (instant) holdings.

Expand full comment

Correct, thanks Tintin.

It's a way for their $1 of buying or selling pressure to create more than $1 of price movement so to speak.

If I can buy $1 of BTC, and it makes somebody sell their short position, that person now needs to purchase the lowest asks in the book.. which makes price climb as a result.

So if instead of $1 it's $1m or $10m, and millions of positions close out, price can really move fast. If played well enough, that person can also place sell orders to exit their position as this liquidation cascade unfolds in perps.

Expand full comment

Key term was ‘perps,’ which I now understand. Thank you both.

Expand full comment