Tellor’s TRB liquidations soar to $70m amid market manipulation concerns

Whales have allegedly wiped out both long and short positions in TRB, causing the token’s price to plunge from $600 down to $135 in a matter of a few hours.

On Jan. 1, TRB, the native token of Tellor, suffered a staggering 70% decline from its all-time high of $600 earlier in the day, according to CoinGecko data. The market turmoil ensued after whales executed substantial liquidations of both long and short positions, as reported by crypto tracking service Spot On Chain.

TRB price in USD | Source: CoinGecko

Over the past 24 hours, CoinGlass recorded a total of $233 million in liquidations, with TRB accounting for more than $73 million.

Token liquidation heatmap | Source: CoinGlass You might also like: Tellor up 39% from yesterday, analyst points to manipulation

Notably, HTX (formerly Huobi) emerged as the largest dumper of TRB positions as of Dec. 31, with over $15 million in TRB shorts opened on the exchange. OKX and Binance followed, with $12.1 million and $6.69 million, respectively. Spot On Chain suggests that this dramatic price swing could be indicative of market manipulation, pointing out that a TRB whale controlled the majority of liquidity, while on-chain activity remained low during the pump-and-dump scheme.

🚨🚨 $TRB has skyrocketed by 75% ($500M market cap added) in just one day, with no significant changes since our last post.

The reported whale retains the majority liquidity, and on-chain activity remains low. Negative funding rates on most exchanges suggest the potential for… https://t.co/VjT9ZNmC2i pic.twitter.com/sfIVpLVC56

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) December 31, 2023

As of press time, the Tellor team made no public statement on the matter.

Launched in 2019, Tellor is a decentralized oracle network built on the Ethereum blockchain, which aims to provide a decentralized alternative for obtaining real-world data that can be used by smart contracts. The Tellor network incentivizes participants, known as miners, to submit and validate data through a process that involves staking the project’s token, TRB.

Read more: Tellor account compromised after price surge

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