Trader who made $190M shorting crash also apparently bet on CZ’s pardon

The crypto trader who supposedly made millions shorting the crypto market before US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement appears to have profited again by betting that Trump would pardon the founder of Binance. 

On-chain sleuth Euan pointed to Etherscan data to make the connection between the trader and the Polymarket account. The crypto wallet reportedly made $56,522 on Polymarket by betting that Trump would pardon Changpeng “CZ” Zhao sometime in 2025. 

The crypto trader had already become suspected in crypto circles for having access to insider knowledge after their tightly timed Bitcoin and Ethereum shorts — just hours before Trump’s tariff announcement sent prices falling. 

Some believe the trader must also have known about the pardon. 

Crypto exec Garett Jin denies owning the wallet address

“Looking like obvious insider knowledge,” onchain investigator Coffeezilla said in an X post to his 736,600 followers on Thursday, while resharing a post from onchain sleuth Eye, who said he “knows something we don’t know.” 

Former BitForex CEO Garrett Jin has previously denied being behind the crypto wallet, which opened up a short position on Bitcoin less than an hour before Trump announced “a tariff of 100% on China” on Oct. 10.

Jin reiterated that he had “no connection with the Trump family” and denied allegations of insider trading after crypto researcher Eye claimed he controlled a wallet address used by a whale to short Bitcoin.

In a separate X post a few days later on Oct. 13, Jin said, “The fund isn’t mine — it’s my clients’. We run nodes and provide in-house insights for them.”

Market participants say the trade “was obvious” anyway

Swan Desk CEO Jacob King said in an X post on Thursday that the pardon “was obvious,” revealing that he made $956,000 in profit betting that Trump would pardon Zhao.

Related: Trump on CZ pardon: I’m told ‘what he did is not even a crime’

“Especially after CZ invested over $2B into WLFUSD Stablecoin. That move practically screamed pay-for-pardon,” King said.

Meanwhile, crypto commentator Abbas also questioned the insider trading allegations. 

Abbas said, “You really think someone with access to the President of the United States would use insider information to make $56k?” 

Abbas said the pardon wasn’t an “extremely unlikely event” and has been spoken about “forever.”

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