In brief
- •Trader @qwatio accumulates $3.6M losses on high-leverage crypto positions.
- •He maintains a 20× XRP short near a liquidation threshold set at $2.93.
- •A $0.07 rise could trigger a full liquidation and a massive short squeeze.
- •The market watches his stubbornness, between fascination for risk and lessons in extreme trading.
This is no longer trading, it’s a duel. Despite colossal losses, @qwatio keeps shorting XRP.
The numbers are dizzying. He shorted 1,366.67 BTC at 40× and 2.78 million XRP at 20×, liquidated above $110,280 and $3.0665 respectively. Result: $3.6M in losses. He is following up with a new position of 6.17 M XRP (≈ $17.6M) at 20× leverage. As soon as the XRP price approaches $2.9155, his position shakes.
He doesn’t relent. Even after a partial liquidation, he remains exposed to $14.3M on 4.98 M XRP. XRP hovers around $2.90. Needless to say, the slightest upward wave is enough to take him out.
No stop‑loss. No plan B. Just the conviction that it will go down.
XRP, the short seller trap that nobody seems to avoid
XRP attracts short sellers like mosquitoes to light. It is liquid, volatile, and offers a perfect ground for those who like to play it tight. But by playing with fire, some seriously get burned.
A slight shiver in the market, and a whole house of cards threatens to collapse. If the XRP price crosses the $2.93 mark, platforms could liquidate up to 44 million dollars in short positions, in a brutal automatic chain reaction. This type of cascade trigger — called a short squeeze — is unforgiving: it forces short sellers to urgently buy back, pushing the price even higher. It is a trap feared even by the most seasoned.
And in this case, the thresholds are so tight that the slightest movement acts like a detonation.
Here are the facts that make people tremble:
- •$3.6M: cumulative losses of the trader on his XRP and BTC shorts;
- •$2.9155: liquidation threshold of his large position;
- •555,555 XRP: new short opened after losses, at 20×;
- •$0.07: variation sufficient to trigger a new liquidation;
- •115.92%: margin used according to Hypercan.
His behavior borders on obsession. He created a new wallet (0x9018), injected 4.22 M USDC, and restarted the machine. Observers no longer see a strategy but a form of addiction disguised by the word “conviction.”
Even the greats make mistakes. Billionaire James Wynn also experienced a setback with bitcoin. To bounce back, he bet everything on the ASTER airdrop, hoping to turn this drop into a jackpot. A new bet. A new chance?