Crypto Crash: A Tale of Greed, Madness, and $19B Vanished!

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Ah, the crypto markets-a theater of the absurd, where the players are many, the stakes are high, and the madness is as boundless as the human soul itself. Enter Dave Weisberger, the co-founder of CoinRoutes and a man who, in his own words, has seen the underbelly of financial schemes. On the Thinking Crypto podcast, he unveiled a tale so grotesque, so dripping with irony, that even the most jaded observer might pause to marvel at its audacity.

“The greatest mass liquidation event in history,” he declared, his voice tinged with a mixture of awe and disdain. A staggering $19 billion evaporated into the ether, with Bitcoin alone shedding $5 billion. Altcoins, those poor fools, plummeted 20-70%-a financial massacre, a carnival of despair. And Weisberger, ever the cynic, whispered the forbidden truth: “Was it manipulation? I damn well think so. I have no proof. But it was just too damn obvious a time for an incredibly profitable attack.”

“In this world, there is no such thing as coincidence. Only the machinations of men, their greed, their fear, their insatiable hunger for power.”

The Anatomy of a Financial Coup

Weisberger, with the precision of a surgeon dissecting a cadaver, laid bare the playbook of the attackers. Weeks of silent preparation, a dance of shadows: long spot, short perpetual futures. Then, in the stillness of a low-liquidity window, the strike. Spot holdings dumped, bids placed far below market price in perpetuals. The market, a fragile thing, crumbled. Leveraged traders, those poor souls, were liquidated. Forced selling ensued, and the attackers, like vultures, swooped in to claim their prize.

DeFi exchanges, with their transparent on-chain positions, bore the brunt of the assault. Even Binance’s vaunted auto-deleveraging system, Weisberger noted with a smirk, was “broken”-a tragicomic failure in the face of such calculated malice.

The Myth of the Four-Year Cycle

Ah, the halving cycle theory-a fairy tale for the credulous, a superstition masquerading as wisdom. Weisberger, ever the skeptic, dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “Three data points,” he scoffed, “and you build a cathedral of certainty? It is no better than the Super Bowl Indicator, that absurd correlation between football and the stock market. Complete and unadulterated bullshit.”

Hope in the Ashes

Yet, even in this tale of ruin, Weisberger finds a glimmer of hope. The hash rate, he notes, is six times what it was in 2022. Bitcoin, that stubborn survivor, has seen 10-30% of its supply shift from early holders to newer buyers-a sign of enduring faith. Institutional holders, with their multi-year allocations, are not here for the quick thrill but for the long game.

His own portfolio, a reflection of this guarded optimism, is a testament to his convictions: Bitcoin as the cornerstone, Solana and BitTensor as secondary plays, and smaller positions in Zcash and XRP. A man who has seen the abyss and yet dares to build upon its edge.

And so, the crypto markets continue their dance-a macabre waltz of greed, fear, and hope. Weisberger, the chronicler of this madness, leaves us with a question: “Is it manipulation? Or merely the inevitable consequence of human nature?” The answer, perhaps, lies in the heart of every trader, every investor, every soul who dares to play this game.

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2026-02-03 21:52