Delisted by Binance but big pump, the extreme manipulation by the market maker of Alpaca Coin.

Jessy, Golden Finance

According to common sense, when a token is delisted by an exchange, it is a significant negative news.

However, this pattern was not perfectly replicated with the ALPACA token, which was delisted from Binance on May 2. Initially, when the news of ALPACA's delisting came on April 24, it did experience a brief decline, but then its price rose more than tenfold within the following three days.

By April 30, the price had risen nearly 50 times from the announced delisting price. According to Coinglass data, the liquidation amount of ALPACA tokens in the past 24 hours reached 50 million USD, exceeding that of Bitcoin.

Behind such an absurd phenomenon is merely a perfect harvest by the ALPACA dealer.

The Contradiction of Common Sense in Dealer Manipulation, the Elegy of Retail Investors

About five days before Binance announced the delisting of ALPACA on April 24, the trading volume of the ALPACA token suddenly increased, and its price nearly doubled at its peak. At this point, it can be inferred that the market makers were accumulating at low prices ahead of the delisting announcement.

However, when the news of the delisting was officially released on April 24, retail investors expected the price to plummet. At that time, the long-short ratio reached 1:4, but the price of the token did not fall as the retail investors had anticipated. Instead, after a brief decline of 30%, it began to rise.

The exchange plays an important role in this, as Binance has shortened the settlement cycle of contract funding rates from 8 hours to 1 hour. When the rate drops to -2%, it also indicates that airdrops need to pay high fees to short, and the high rates cause short sellers to close their positions, which in turn drives the price of the tokens up.

However, the changes in the fee rates do not work effectively at all times above the price fluctuations of this token on ALPACA.

ALPACA is always counterintuitive, and it is precisely this counterintuitiveness that causes many traders to make mistakes when trading according to "patterns." For instance, on April 29, Binance raised the ALPACA contract fee cap to ±4%. Normally, an increase in the fee cap, along with a rise in short selling rates, would deter short sellers, and the token's price should rise. However, its price did not increase as it did on April 24; instead, it experienced a drop, losing directly 3/4.

By April 30th, the game of the market makers, which had been twisted back and forth between bulls and bears, reached its peak, with the highest price in 24 hours being 20 times higher than the lowest price. At 5 PM on April 30th, Binance delisted the ALPACA contract, causing ALPACA to drop over 60% from its high before starting to rise again.

In the past 24 hours, the largest liquidation order of ALPACA on the entire network occurred on Bybit, amounting to 3.98 million USD. The liquidation volume of ALPACA contracts also topped the list.

Summary:

The most intriguing aspect of this incident is that the combination of the players and the news is too perfect, leaving retail investors at a loss. Additionally, the exchange itself has somewhat become an accomplice in this situation.

For example, the recent adjustment of contract fees by Binance seemed to be aimed at maintaining market stability, but it was exploited by market manipulators. On April 29, Binance raised the ALPACA fee to ±4%, which was originally intended to deter short sellers, but the price instead fell, while the open interest increased.

The market makers undoubtedly took advantage of this news, catching retail investors off guard. This also indicates that the formulation and adjustment of exchange rules need to be more cautious, fully considering various possible situations to avoid giving market manipulators an opportunity.

This incident also exposed that retail investors are merely playthings that can be harvested at any time by the big players. To dance with the big players is to be on the edge of a knife, craving blood.