Author: Sleepy.txt
In the early morning of October 11, 2025, an account on the cryptocurrency trading platform Hyperliquid attracted the attention of traders.
That day, the account did just one thing: It established a massive short position in Hyperliquid, 30 minutes before Trump announced 100% tariffs on China.
It is short Bitcoin and also short Ethereum.
Thirty minutes after Trump's announcement, the cryptocurrency market crashed. Bitcoin plummeted from $122,500 to $105,000, a drop of nearly 15%. The account owner closed their positions, pocketing a profit of $192 million.
On that day, tens of billions of dollars of leveraged positions across the entire network were liquidated, and countless retail investors watched their accounts drop to zero.
The account's transaction records for short Bitcoin and Ethereum; Source: @mlmabc
On-chain analyst @mlmabc wrote on Twitter: "This is just a public transaction on Hyperliquid, imagine what he did on a centralized exchange or elsewhere. I'm pretty sure he is a key figure in today's events." The tweet quickly received millions of views.
A thirty-minute window, $192 million in revenue.
When these facts are put together, the word "coincidence" seems so weak.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Someone knows it before the market
Five months ago, the nonprofit investigative organization ProPublica released a tens-thousand-word investigative report with a direct and pointed title: "More than a dozen US officials sold stocks before Trump's tariffs caused the market to plummet."
The report's content is even more striking than its title. Since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, at least a dozen senior administration officials and congressional aides have engaged in exceptionally well-timed stock trades, selling stocks ahead of the market's plunge in response to tariffs.
Tobias Dorsey, acting general counsel in the White House Executive Office, is responsible for providing legal advice to White House officials, including the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
On February 25 and 26, 2025, he sold index funds worth between $12,000 and $180,000, as well as stocks of nine companies.
The morning after the deal closed, Trump announced on social media that the major tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China would go ahead as planned. The S&P 500 fell nearly two percentage points that day, bringing its cumulative loss to nearly eighteen percentage points six weeks later.
In response to media questions, Dorsey said that his wife decided to sell the stocks to pay for tuition and that he did not have any non-public information.
Even more striking was the operation of Marshall Stallings, director of intergovernmental affairs and public engagement in the Office of the US Trade Representative, a position most sensitive to policy developments.
On March 25 and 27, 2025, Stallings sold between $2,000 and $30,000 in Target and Freeport-McMoRan stock. Strangely, he had purchased these shares just a week prior. A few days later, Trump announced the toughest round of tariffs. Target's stock price plummeted 17%, and Freeport-McMoRan's fell 25%.
Faced with the reporter's questioning, Stallings chose to remain silent.
Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, a senior State Department official who served as ambassador to Peru until April of this year, has trading records showing that between March 24 and 25, 2025, she sold between $255,000 and $650,000 worth of stocks and bought an equal amount in bonds and Treasury funds.
On March 31, two days before Trump announced the "Liberation Day" tariffs, she again sold $15,000 to $50,000 worth of total market stock funds.
After the market plunge, Syptak-Ramnath bought back the same amount in another fund. She explained to the media that these transactions were due to "family obligations" and "a response to economic changes" and denied having any inside information.
There are many similar cases.
Gautam Rana, the current ambassador to Slovakia, sold between $830,000 and $1.7 million worth of total market index funds on March 19, a week before Trump announced the auto tariffs and two weeks before Liberation Day. Rana declined to comment.
The most notable figure was Attorney General Pam Bondi, who sold between $1 million and $5 million worth of Trump Media stock on April 2, 2025. After the market closed that day, Trump announced the "Liberation Day" tariffs, sending the market plummeting.
Bondi, under ethical rules, was required to sell her holdings by early May, but she has not explained why she chose that date to sell. The Justice Department has also remained silent.
ProPublica reporters Robert Faturechi, Pratheek Rebala and Brandon Roberts wrote in the report that the trades may have violated the 2012 STOCK Act, which prohibits public officials from using nonpublic government information to trade in securities.
But in thirteen years, it has never been used to prosecute a single person.
Markets follow tweets
If the previous transactions could barely be explained by "coincidence", then Trump's actions on April 9, 2025 made this explanation extremely pale.
That morning, shortly after the U.S. stock market opened, Trump posted an all-caps post on Truth Social: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
Trump posted this on Truth Social; Source: Truth Social
Four hours later, he announced a suspension of the harshest tariffs on most countries. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged nearly 3,000 points. Any investor who followed his advice that morning would have seen a substantial return by evening.
The question is, when Trump sent that tweet, did he know that he would announce a policy shift four hours later?
The answer is self-evident.
This isn't the first time Trump has used tweets to sway the markets.
As early as 2017, when he first entered the White House, he was in the habit of releasing policy information through social media, which often caused violent market fluctuations. In his second term, this behavior became more frequent and more explicit.
Trump's pattern of operation has formed a clear cycle. He first threatens high tariffs, which triggers a market drop and panic selling by retail investors. Then, he tweets, "Now is a good time to buy," prompting retail investors to re-enter the market. Shortly thereafter, he announces a suspension or reduction in tariffs, prompting a rapid market rebound.
At every node of this cycle, the core circle can operate precisely. They buy low and sell high, and advance and retreat in an orderly manner. However, those retail investors who obey the tweets can only be the ones to take over again and again.
California Senator Adam Schiff and Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, in a letter to the White House, called for an "urgent investigation into whether President Trump, his family, and members of his administration are involved in insider trading or other illegal financial activities." Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, speaking on the Capitol Hill, asked, "Is this blatant corruption?"
White House spokesman Kush Desai responded that the accusations were nothing more than "partisan games" and that the president had a responsibility to "reassure the markets and the American people about their economic security."
Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor and former chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, publicly refuted the claim. He said, "We cannot allow high-ranking public officials, including the president, to discuss stock prices and buy and sell them while simultaneously making decisions that directly affect them. If anyone in the Bush administration had made such remarks, that person would have been fired long ago."
But Trump won't be fired because he's the boss.
Beyond power, there are no more constraints
In theory, the United States has three lines of defense to prevent government officials from engaging in insider trading: laws, regulators, and congressional oversight. However, in the Trump era, all three lines of defense have almost collapsed simultaneously.
The first line of defense is the STOCK Act.
In 2012, under public pressure, Congress passed this law, explicitly prohibiting members of Congress and executive officials from using their official positions to buy or sell securities. It was a significant victory, representing the public's expectation for transparency.
But more than ten years have passed and this law has almost never been implemented.
Thirteen years later, the STOCK Act has not been successfully used to prosecute a single case, and legal experts are widely skeptical that it will withstand court scrutiny.
In recent years, the U.S. judicial system has continuously tightened the definition of "illegal insider trading", making the scope of application of this law increasingly vague.
Tyler Gellasch, a former congressional aide who helped draft the STOCK Act, said that executive branch decisions influence market trends almost daily. Logically, they shouldn't personally hold or trade stocks. If they do invest, they should be managed independently by others to avoid intertwining power and interests.
But this is just a "should." In reality, no one is held accountable.
The second line of defense is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
It is supposed to be the gatekeeper of market order, responsible for investigating suspicious transactions, punishing violations, and maintaining market credibility. However, during the Trump administration, the SEC's role has undergone subtle changes.
After taking office, Trump appointed Paul Atkins, a longtime advocate of deregulation, as chairman. Since Atkins took over, the SEC has suspended or terminated twelve cases involving cryptocurrency fraud. In February 2025, Trump signed an executive order granting greater authority to the independent regulatory agency under the White House. This order significantly weakened the SEC's independence.
Current SEC Chairman Paul Atkins; Source: Fox Business
According to NPR, during Trump's first term, the number of insider trading enforcement cases filed by the SEC fell to a decade-low of just 32. This number continued to decline during his second term. The absence of regulatory action has also dissipated the market's fear of violations.
Regulators no longer regulate, but instead give the green light to the regulated.
The third line of defense is congressional oversight.
According to institutional design, Congress is supposed to provide checks and balances on the executive branch and prevent abuse of power. However, in the reality of partisan polarization, when the same party controls both the executive and legislative branches, oversight gradually devolves into protection.
Today, Republicans control both the House and Senate. Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly called for investigations into the dealings of Trump and his administration officials, but have received no response. Faced with increasingly glaring conflicts of interest, Republican lawmakers have chosen to turn a blind eye, and silence has become the default response.
Charlie Dent, a former Republican congressman who served as chairman of the House Ethics Committee, said: "No one should be allowed to use their public office to enrich themselves while in office. Members of Congress would never be allowed to engage in the kind of Memecoin transactions that the president is conducting."
But Dent is no longer in Congress.
Colleagues who stayed in Washington knew that challenging Trump would mean the end of their political careers, so they learned to bow their heads.
From skepticism about encryption to issuing one's own currency
In 2019, Trump publicly criticized cryptocurrencies on Twitter, saying that "unregulated crypto assets can facilitate illegal activity, including drug trafficking" and asserting that the value of such assets is "highly volatile and built on thin air."
Two years later, he again said in an interview with Fox News that Bitcoin "looks like a scam."
However, by 2025, everything had reversed. Trump announced that he would make the United States the "cryptocurrency capital of the world" and end the boycott of the crypto industry.
What changed his mind was not the maturity of technology or his understanding of financial innovation, but something more direct: interests.
Just days before his inauguration, Trump launched his own meme coin, $TRUMP.
This is a token with no real use, relying entirely on his personal brand and political aura to attract buyers. Once the token was issued, it raised approximately $148 million in a short period of time, most of which came from anonymous accounts and overseas buyers.
A few months later, on May 22, 2025, Trump hosted a private dinner at his golf club in Virginia. The invitees were the top 25 holders of $TRUMP. The next day, they were given a special tour of the White House.
Dinner scene; Image source: BlockBeats
The dinner event sparked intense controversy.
"With this paid dinner, Trump put the president's access and influence up for auction," said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. "The scope and scale of the corruption is shocking."
Protesters outside the dinner; Source: X
In addition to issuing their own coins, the Trump family also founded a cryptocurrency company called World Liberty Financial. This company was jointly launched by Trump and his two sons in the fall of 2024, with the family holding a 60% stake.
In just a few months, World Liberty Financial has raised over $500 million. According to disclosed data, the Trump family received approximately 75% of the proceeds from the cryptocurrency token sales.
Key figures in the company include Trump’s Middle East envoy, real estate billionaire Steve Witkoff, who serves as both an investor and co-founder. Trump’s two sons are actively promoting the company’s project and tokens in the Middle East and beyond.
Upon returning to the White House, Trump quickly eased regulations on cryptocurrencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suspended or terminated twelve cases involving cryptocurrency fraud, and the Department of Justice discontinued investigations into several companies. Meanwhile, several officials who had long supported the crypto industry were appointed to key regulatory positions.
The benefits of this policy shift go far beyond the Trump family itself.
Many cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and investors on his campaign list are significant political donors.
Elon Musk is the most prominent among them. He spent nearly $300 million to help elect Trump, and he holds significant Bitcoin investments through Tesla and other businesses. Following the deregulation, market sentiment rebounded, and crypto asset prices soared. Musk's paper wealth also soared.
Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University and author of "How Democracy Dies," said he has never seen such open and direct corruption in any modern government.
Former federal prosecutor Paul Rosenzweig expressed similar concerns. He pointed out that self-enrichment was the very form of abuse of power that the Founding Fathers feared most. That's why they included two clauses in the Constitution specifically guarding against conflicts of interest. Trump's profiting from presidential memecoin is the very scenario they sought to prevent.
Julian Zelizer, a professor of political history at Princeton University, was more direct. He said: "To me, Trump's cryptocurrency dealings seem quite clear. Policy decisions regarding parts of the financial sector are not for the national interest, but for his own wealth accumulation. It is hard to imagine that such decisions will bring any benefits to the country."
Corruption in the Sun
When these scattered events are pieced together, a complete system of power monetization emerges.
Trump controls the direction of tariffs and regulatory policies, and these decisions have a significant impact on the market. Core investors often receive advance notice of policy announcements and quickly make market moves, whether short, selling, or buying, all depending on the policy direction. To circumvent regulation, they use more difficult-to-trace channels like cryptocurrencies.
The policy's release sent shockwaves through the market. Core investors liquidated their positions, reaping huge profits; retail investors, left as the market slickers, were either wiped out or liquidated. The SEC turned a blind eye, Congress refused to investigate, and the law became effectively ineffective.
Then, the next tariff, the next policy, the next harvest.
This system operated almost flawlessly. From information transmission to market reaction, from layout to cashing out, every link was seamlessly integrated. There was no need for secret meetings or underground transactions; everything was conducted openly, yet no one could stop it.
Nixon was driven from office by the wiretapping of Democratic Party headquarters, but he profited from it. Clinton was impeached after a sex scandal and perjury, but he didn't manipulate the market. And in the Trump era, corruption has become institutionalized, industrialized, and even legalized, yet no one is held accountable.
There are multiple reasons for this. The architects of the U.S. Constitution erected numerous defenses against power, but they never envisioned a president so blatantly abusing public authority for personal gain. Partisan polarization has ineffectively enforced checks and balances, leaving Republican lawmakers unwilling to scrutinize a Republican president, even when corruption is exposed. The triumph of money politics has created a symbiotic relationship between major donors and the president, who invest in power itself.
The paradox of populism is that voters chose Trump because he was "anti-establishment," but what he established was precisely an even more corrupt establishment.
Those thirty minutes in the early morning of October 11, 2025, were a microcosm of the entire corrupt system.
From the White House legal counsel to the trade representative, from the attorney general to the transportation secretary, from cryptocurrency whale to the Trump family's memecoin, all clues point to the same conclusion: this is a power-monetization machine that operates with precision and astonishing efficiency.
The law has been dismantled, regulators have become complicit, and Congress has abandoned oversight. All three lines of defense have collapsed, leaving only one unchecked center of power.
Trump has proved one thing in his own way: in the 21st century, you can monetize power openly, systematically, and legally without paying any price.
When the president becomes the biggest insider trader, when the government operates like a hedge fund, and when tweets are used as signals to exploit retail investors, it's no longer a corruption scandal. It's a public auction where the target is power itself.
And those ordinary investors who lost all their savings in thirty minutes were just the most insignificant chips in this auction.
