Original Title: "MYX Incident: A Carefully Manipulated Liquidity Exit Game"

Source: Wu Says Real

Compiled by: Zhou, ChainCatcher

MYX leveraged exaggerated price surges as a gimmick to capture the traffic spotlight of various media and data platforms, enticing eager warriors to invest their hard-earned money, contributing to a spectacular liquidation fireworks display. MYX is like a powder keg, with the trigger in the hands of large holders, leaving you with no way back regardless of the market direction. The market is not short of opportunities; it only lacks "survivor bias" willing to take risks.

Part One: MYX Price Explosion: A Quantitative Overview

1.1 Depicting the Parabolic Trajectory of MYX

The price trend of the token exhibited a typical parabolic shape, with its rate and magnitude of increase reaching extreme levels in a short period. A timeline of this process reveals its astonishing growth trajectory:

The token price started from a historical low of about $0.047 in June 2025.

In the first significant surge in August 2025, the price peaked at $2.49 on August 8.

Subsequently, in September 2025, a more explosive rally unfolded. In just seven days, the price skyrocketed over 1132%, reaching a historic high of over $17. On September 9 alone, the price increase exceeded 291% in a single day.

1.2 Trading Volume and Market Cap Dynamics

Accompanying the price surge, trading volume and market capitalization also experienced explosive growth, reflecting the rapid influx of market attention and speculative capital.

• Trading Volume Surge: Driven by the narrative of the MYX Finance V2 upgrade (which may have been a rationalized "pretext"), spot trading volume surged dramatically on September 7-8, increasing by over 710% to reach $354 million. During the subsequent price peak, this figure soared to an astonishing $880 million. Such massive trading volume indicates extreme market enthusiasm, with a significant amount of speculative capital involved.
• Market Cap Expansion: During the August rally, MYX's market cap surpassed $300 million. By September 8/9, its market cap ballooned to over $3.5 billion, briefly placing it among the top 35 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization globally.

1.3 Technical Indicators of Market Overheating

Technical indicators clearly show that the market has entered an extremely overbought and irrational state, signaling a high risk of price correction.

Relative Strength Index (RSI): The RSI is a key indicator for measuring market momentum and overbought/oversold conditions. During this rally, MYX's 14-day RSI reached 96.21, while the 7-day RSI hit an unprecedented 98.06. Typically, an RSI value above 70 is considered overbought; values exceeding 95 indicate that the market has entered a statistically unsustainable speculative frenzy, almost invariably foreshadowing an imminent sharp correction.

The interaction between price and trading volume formed a powerful positive feedback loop. The initial price increase was likely driven by concentrated, coordinated buying, successfully attracting initial market attention. As prices climbed, the percentage increase in trading volume displayed on major exchanges and data aggregation platforms was enormous, providing material for cryptocurrency news media and social media influencers.

Media, KOLs, data platforms, etc. (this article is one of them) reporting and disseminating these astonishing figures quickly created a social consensus of a "hot token," triggering retail investors' FOMO (similar to the promotional effect of "large orders" from whale traders on HL). This self-reinforcing process formed a parabolic upward trajectory. More importantly, this influx of funds driven by retail investors provided the necessary liquidity for early insiders and controllers to distribute their holdings at high prices.

Part Two: Beneath the Surface: On-Chain Evidence and Market Manipulation Indicators

The price surge of MYX was not merely a result of market enthusiasm but a comprehensive outcome of a series of meticulously planned events.

2.1 The Engine of the Surge: Intense Derivatives Short Squeeze

The derivatives market was the main battleground and core engine of this price explosion.

Key Data: According to Coinglass, a massive liquidation event occurred on September 8, with a total liquidation amount reaching $14.63 million, of which as much as $11 million came from the liquidation of short positions.

Mechanism Analysis: When the price of MYX was pushed up and broke through key technical resistance levels (e.g., $3.69), it triggered a forced liquidation of numerous short positions. These forced liquidated short traders had to buy MYX in the market to cover their positions, creating immense, involuntary buying pressure. This cascading forced buying formed a vicious cycle, further pushing prices up and liquidating more short positions at higher price levels. The up to 50x leverage offered by MYX perpetual contracts amplified this effect, making prices highly sensitive to small fluctuations.

Catalyst: Binance's adjustment of the funding rate settlement frequency for MYX perpetual contracts (changed to once every hour) further exacerbated the plight of short sellers. More frequent funding rate settlements meant increased costs and uncertainty for holding short positions, effectively trapping short traders in losing positions and making them more susceptible to price increases.

2.2 Doubts: Precisely Timed Token Unlocking and VC Sell-Offs

If the short squeeze was the engine of the rise, the timing of the token unlocking events revealed the "timing" of this surge. (A clever "turning the tables" move, playing on the market's impression that unlocking leads to price drops)

Event Overlap: The peak price period perfectly coincided with a significant token unlocking event. This unlocking released 39 million MYX tokens to the market, accounting for 3.9% of the total supply. For a token with a relatively small circulating supply, this was a massive supply shock.

On-Chain Evidence: After the token unlocking, on-chain data tracking showed that the well-known venture capital firm Hack VC transferred 835,000 MYX to the MEXC exchange, a clear signal of preparation for a large-scale sale.

Historical Repetition: This was not an isolated incident. In August, after a similar token unlocking event, MYX's price plummeted by 58%. This indicates that the market has formed a clear pattern: token unlocking is a window for early investors and insiders to cash out and exert significant selling pressure on the market, as well as a consensus that the token is "highly likely to drop."

2.3 Accusations of Coordinated Manipulation and Wash Trading

Analyst's Warning Signals: Analyst Dominic on X provided a detailed analysis, pointing out several dangerous signals pointing to market manipulation:

Disproportionate Trading Volume: The daily perpetual contract trading volume of MYX suddenly surged to $6 billion to $9 billion, a figure that is completely illogical for a token with a market cap and liquidity far smaller than this, suggesting a large amount of non-genuine trading activity.

Coordinated Trading Patterns: Identical, programmatic trading patterns were observed across multiple exchanges such as Bitget, PancakeSwap, and Binance. This cross-platform synchronized behavior is highly unlikely to be spontaneously formed by a large number of independent market participants, but rather appears to be controlled by a single entity or a colluding group through trading bots.

On-Chain Fund Aggregation: On-chain data shows that a large number of small buy orders' funds ultimately aggregated to a centralized wallet address. This is a typical manipulation technique used to obscure the true intentions and scale of funds of a single large player.

Wash Trading creates false trading activity. Its purpose is to artificially inflate trading volume, attracting retail investors who view high trading volume as a signal of market health and good liquidity. Once retail investors are lured in, manipulators can sell their tokens at high prices to them, completing the harvest. The various signs observed in the MYX incident closely align with the typical characteristics of wash trading.

Part Three: Analysis of the "Killing Move": A Strategic Review

The core logic of this incident: "Killing move under high control of spot." This was not a simple market frenzy but a meticulously planned, interconnected capital operation. Its strategy can be broken down into the following steps:

3.1 Step One: Laying the Foundation — High Concentration of Spot Control (High Control)

Low Circulation and High Internal Holding: MYX has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, but at the price peak, the circulating supply was only about 197 million tokens, less than 20% of the total. According to the token distribution plan, core contributors (20%) and investors (17.5%) collectively hold 37.5% of the total supply. Most of these tokens are in long-term lock-up, meaning that at any given time, the truly freely tradable "floating chips" in the market are very few.

Advantages of Control: This low circulation and high concentration structure creates perfect conditions for price manipulation. When the vast majority of tokens are controlled by a few entities, they only need relatively little capital to create significant price fluctuations in the spot market, paving the way for subsequent operations in the derivatives market.

3.2 Step Two: Activating the Engine — Leveraging Spot to Manipulate Contracts (Manipulating Prices)

Large holders utilized their control over the spot market to turn the derivatives market into the core battleground for harvesting counterparties.

Creating Short Squeeze: This is the core mechanism of this manipulation. By raising prices in the spot market, manipulators can precisely push the mark price of perpetual contracts, causing it to break through key technical levels (such as $3.69). This action triggers a chain reaction: a large number of short positions are forcibly liquidated due to insufficient margin. These forced liquidated shorts must buy MYX in the market to cover their positions, creating immense, involuntary buying pressure, further pushing prices higher.

Stunning Liquidation Data: On September 8, a total of $14.63 million in liquidations occurred across the network, with over $11 million coming from liquidated short positions. This clearly indicates that one of the main purposes of raising spot prices was to precisely "hunt" shorts in the derivatives market.

3.3 Step Three: Expanding Gains — "Pump" as Marketing (Attracting Counterparties)

The "marketing effect" of the insane price surge is a crucial part of this strategy. Raising the token price to the sky is itself the most effective marketing tactic.

Creating FOMO: In just 8 days (September 1-8), the price surged over 1132%, and on September 9, it briefly entered the top 35 of CMC's global market cap, quickly attracting the attention of the entire market. This parabolic rise spread through major media and social platforms, creating strong FOMO among retail investors.

Attracting New Counterparties: This extreme market sentiment successfully attracted a large number of new traders. Traders drawn in by the price increase would open long positions to chase the rise, while those attracted by high funding rates and expectations of a correction would open short positions. Regardless of direction, they became the "counterparties" needed by manipulators, providing depth and liquidity to the market and preparing for the next phase of harvesting.

3.4 Step Four: Final Objective — Offloading and Harvesting at High Prices (Liquidating Longs and Shorts)

This carefully orchestrated price surge clearly aimed to create exit opportunities for those with intentions and to harvest the market in both directions.

Perfect synchronization with token unlocking: The peak price coincided astonishingly with the unlocking event of 39 million MYX tokens. The price manipulation created a perfect window of ample liquidity and a consistent bearish direction.

On-chain evidence: The well-known venture capital firm Hack VC immediately transferred approximately $2.15 million worth of MYX tokens to the exchange after the token unlocking. This indicates that retail investors became the "exit liquidity" for insiders. Or, one might say, this was a "bearish" act staged for retail investors and analysts?

Bidirectional harvesting: The goal of this game was to capture both long and short positions.

During the upward surge, by triggering short squeezes, the manipulators harvested the short counterparties. Conversely, after distributing the spot at the price peak, the manipulators could short the market. As they stopped supporting the price and began to sell off, a price crash was inevitable (as the previous unlocking in August had led to a 58% price drop). At this point, those who chased the price at the top would be completely liquidated. Regardless of long or short positions, the explosive trigger (spot) was controlled by others, and whether one faced liquidation or profit would depend on the mercy of others.

In summary, the explosive rise of MYX was not a natural reaction of the market to its technology or fundamentals, but rather a "killing move" performed in the derivatives market using highly concentrated spot control as leverage on spot prices. Its core purpose was to attract a large number of traders to become counterparties through sensational marketing effects, thereby achieving precise liquidations of shorts and creating an ideal liquidity environment for those with intentions to sell newly unlocked tokens at high prices, ultimately completing a bidirectional harvest of the market.

Part Four: Conclusion

These seemingly independent events — the V2 new product narrative, short squeezes, token unlocking, and wash trading accusations — were actually part of a meticulously planned overall strategy. First, those with intentions anticipated the date of the unlocking of 39 million tokens. To sell at the highest price during this period, they needed to create massive market demand in advance. Thus, they heavily promoted the V2 upgrade narrative through or by borrowing from official channels and social media, providing a "fundamental" rationale for the upcoming surge. Next, they likely used trading bots to engage in wash trading across major exchanges, creating the illusion of active trading volume and slowly pushing prices higher. When the price increase attracted the first batch of short sellers, the trap was set.

Subsequently, the manipulators invested a key amount of capital to push the price sharply above the critical liquidation line, triggering a massive short squeeze. At this point, the buying pressure generated by the forced liquidations of shorts became the main fuel driving the parabolic price increase, and the manipulators themselves no longer needed to invest large amounts of capital. Finally, on the day the price peaked, when market FOMO was at its strongest and coinciding with the token unlocking, they obtained their coveted exit window: a very high selling price and a large group of retail investors ready to buy. The newly unlocked 39 million tokens flooded the market, while retail investors unfortunately became their "exit liquidity."

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