As $100M in Tether (USDT) Goes to Bitfinex, CNBC’s ‘Crypto Trader’ Predicts Bitcoin Shorts ‘Will Get REKT’

On Sunday (2 September 2018, 20:19 UTC), Ran NeuNer, the host of CNBC’s “Crypto Trader”, said on Twitter that the $100 million in new Tether (USDT) reportedly sent to crypto exchange Bitfinex suggested that if the Bitcoin (BTC) price went up, the shorts would get “REKT.”

He expressed his views on Bitcoin’s short term price action with the following tweet:

My bet here is that with the volume back in the market,over $13bn being traded in the last few days (Excluding transaction mining exchanges that have HUGE volume). I suspect we may see a price uptick and the shorts won’t have the stamina to ride out the cycle – they will get REKT https://t.co/sTpKnsSohx

— Ran NeuNer (@cryptomanran) September 2, 2018

It all started when someone opened a 10,000 BTC short position on Bitfinex on Saturday (1 September 2018):

This is the first time in my 5 years of trading Bitcoin that I’ve seen an increase of almost 10,000 $BTC of shorts in less than 3hours on Bitfinex#Bitcoin #SqueezeThemBears pic.twitter.com/d4VFKYX8JF

— Squeeze (@cryptoSqueeze) September 2, 2018

Then, around 4pm (UTC) today, we found out about $100 million in new Tether (USDT) being sent to Bitfinex:

Just sent $100,000,000 USDT from the tether reserve to Bitfinex! https://t.co/NPL2zNzEIp #USDT #Tether #Crypto

— Not Tether Backup Printer (@eurtprinter) September 2, 2018

The combination of these two events led to much speculation on crypto Twitter, but perhaps the best commentary came from Chris Burniske, a partner at venture capital firm Placeholder Management, via the following thread:

1/ Lots of chatter about #bitcoin shorts at ATH’s over the last couple weeks & particularly now as someone opened a 10,000 $BTC short position ( > $70M) last night. pic.twitter.com/ikKC2KOnjn

— Chris Burniske (@cburniske) September 2, 2018

2/ The interesting thing with outstanding short positions as an indicator is it can simultaneously be interpreted in opposite ways.

— Chris Burniske (@cburniske) September 2, 2018

3/ From a momentum perspective, lots of short positions can be interpreted as a good time to pile on, as shorts collectively work to break an asset’s back.

— Chris Burniske (@cburniske) September 2, 2018

4/ From a contrarian perspective, lots of short positions can be seen as “rocket fuel” to the upside if the shorts are wrong and get squeezed (learned through @CathieDWood)

— Chris Burniske (@cburniske) September 2, 2018

5/ I’ll let you choose your interpretation re: $BTC right now, but important to hold both opposing “short thoughts” in your mind at the same time.

— Chris Burniske (@cburniske) September 2, 2018

According to data from CryptoCompare, at press time (around 22:15 UTC), Bitcoin is trading around $7,278, up 1.06% in the past 24-hour period.

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