MYX Parabola and "Killing Move": A Massacre of Longs and Shorts Triggered by Spot Control

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 show. MYX is like a powder keg, with the trigger in the hands of large holders, leaving you with no way back, whether long or short. The market is not short of opportunities; it only lacks "survivor bias" willing to take risks.

Part One: MYX Price Explosion: Quantitative Overview

1.1 Depicting the Parabolic Trajectory of MYX

The price trend of the token exhibits a typical parabolic shape, with extreme levels of increase in both speed and magnitude in a short period. Analyzing the 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 reached a peak of $2.49 on August 8.

Subsequently, in September 2025, a more explosive upward trend unfolded. In just seven days, the price skyrocketed over 1132%, hitting a historical high of over $17. On September 9 alone, the price increase exceeded 291% in one 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"), the spot trading volume on September 7-8 surged dramatically, 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 extremely exuberant market sentiment, with substantial speculative funds participating.
• Market Cap Expansion: During the rise in August, MYX's market cap surpassed $300 million. By September 8/9, its market cap ballooned to over $3.5 billion, briefly ranking among the top 35 cryptocurrencies 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 surge, 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 rose, 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 being 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 retail-driven capital 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 is not merely a result of market enthusiasm but a comprehensive outcome of a series of carefully orchestrated events.

2.1 Engine of the Surge: Intense Derivatives Short Squeeze

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

Key Data: According to Coinglass, a massive liquidation event occurred in the market on September 8. The total liquidation amount reached $14.63 million, with as much as $11 million coming 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 large number of forced liquidations of 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 shorts at higher price levels. The up to 50x leverage offered by MYX perpetual contracts amplified this effect, making prices highly sensitive to minor 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 shorts. 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 is the engine of the rise, then the timing of token unlocking events reveals the "timing" of this surge. (A clever move to "turn the tables," playing on the market's impression that unlocking leads to declines)

Event Overlap: The peak price period perfectly coincided with a significant token unlocking event. This unlocking released 39 million MYX tokens into 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 is 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 decline."

2.3 Accusations of Coordinated Manipulation and Wash Trading

Analyst Warning Signals: Analyst Dominic on X provided a detailed analysis pointing out several dangerous signals indicating market manipulation:

Disproportionate Trading Volume: The daily trading volume of MYX perpetual contracts suddenly soared 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, including Bitget, PancakeSwap, and Binance. This cross-platform synchronous behavior is highly unlikely to be spontaneously formed by a large number of independent market participants; it appears more like control by a single entity or a colluding group using 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 a false sense of trading activity. Its purpose is to artificially inflate trading volume, attracting retail investors who view high trading volume as a sign of market health and good liquidity. Once retail investors are lured in, manipulators can sell their tokens at high prices, 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 is not a simple market frenzy but a carefully orchestrated, 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's total supply is 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%) together 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, 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: Starting the Engine — Leveraging Spot to Manipulate Contracts (Manipulating Prices)

Large holders used 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 the manipulation. By raising prices in the spot market, manipulators can precisely push up 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 that further pushes prices higher.

Staggering 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 crazy surge is a crucial part of this strategy. Raising the token price to the sky is, in itself, the most effective marketing tactic.

Creating FOMO Sentiment: In just 8 days (from September 1 to 8), the price surged over 1132%, and on September 9, it briefly entered the top 35 of CMC's global market cap, quickly capturing the entire market's attention. 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 to enter the market. 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 — Distributing and Harvesting at High Prices (Liquidating Both Longs and Shorts)

The ultimate goal of this carefully orchestrated rise clearly points to creating exit opportunities for those with intentions and harvesting the market from both sides.

Perfect Synchronization with Token Unlocking: The peak price coincided astonishingly with the unlocking event of 39 million MYX tokens. The pump created a perfect window of ample liquidity and a consistent "bearish" directional sentiment.

On-Chain Evidence: The well-known venture capital firm Hack VC immediately transferred approximately $2.15 million worth of MYX tokens to exchanges 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 is to eat both sides.

During the upward push, by triggering shorts, the manipulators harvested the short counterparties. Conversely, after distributing in the spot market at the price peak, manipulators could go short. As they stopped supporting the price and began to sell, the price would inevitably plummet (as the previous unlocking in August had caused a 58% drop), at which point those who chased the price at the top would be completely liquidated. Regardless of long or short, the explosive trigger (spot) is controlled by others, and whether one faces liquidation or profit depends on the mercy of others.

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

Part Four: Conclusion

These seemingly independent events — the V2 new product narrative, short squeeze, token unlocking, and accusations of wash trading — are actually part of a carefully orchestrated 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 had to create massive market demand in advance. Thus, they heavily promoted the narrative of the V2 upgrade through or by leveraging official channels and social media, providing a "fundamental" rationale for the upcoming surge. Next, those with intentions likely used trading bots to engage in wash trading across major exchanges, creating a false impression of active trading volume and slowly pushing prices higher. When the price increase attracted the first batch of shorts, the trap was set.

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