Author | @agintender

MYX leveraged its exaggerated price surge as a marketing hook to dominate media and data platform traffic, drawing in eager traders who poured real capital into the market, ultimately fueling a massive liquidation event. MYX functions like a powder keg, with the trigger firmly in the hands of whales—regardless of long or short positions, participants are left with no escape. Markets are never lacking in opportunity; what’s missing is the willingness to take risk—the “survivorship bias” that defines true players.

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute any investment advice. Strongly advise against participating in such abnormal trading activities. This piece is not targeted at any individual or project team—it is purely for academic analysis, aiming to help readers understand not just what happened, but why it happened, and uncover the underlying mechanisms.

Part One: MYX Price Explosion – Quantitative Overview

1.1 Mapping the Parabolic Trajectory

The MYX token’s price trajectory exhibits a classic parabolic pattern, with extreme speed and magnitude of growth over a short timeframe. A timeline analysis reveals its astonishing ascent:

The token began its rally from a historical low of approximately $0.047 in June 2025.

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

Subsequently, in September 2025, a more explosive rally unfolded. Within just seven days, the price surged over 1,132%, reaching a new all-time high above $17. On September 9 alone, the daily price increase exceeded 291%.

1.2 Trading Volume & Market Cap Dynamics

Accompanying the price spike, both trading volume and market cap experienced explosive growth, reflecting heightened market attention and rapid inflow of speculative capital.

· Surging Volume: Driven by the MYX Finance V2 upgrade narrative (a likely rationalization “smokescreen”), spot trading volume spiked over 710% between September 7–8, peaking at $354 million. During the subsequent price peak, this figure soared to an extraordinary $880 million. Such massive volume signals extreme market euphoria and widespread participation by speculative funds.

· Market Cap Expansion: In August’s rally, MYX’s market cap surpassed $300 million. By September 8–9, it ballooned past $3.5 billion, briefly entering the top 35 global crypto market cap rankings.

1.3 Overheated Market Indicators

Technical indicators clearly signal that the market entered an extreme overbought and irrational state—a red flag indicating extremely high risk of imminent correction.

Relative Strength Index (RSI): RSI is a key metric 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, values above 70 indicate overbought territory; readings above 95 signify a statistically unsustainable speculative frenzy, almost invariably preceding sharp reversals.

The interplay between price and volume created a powerful positive feedback loop. Initial price appreciation was likely driven by concentrated, coordinated buying, successfully capturing early market attention. As prices rose, exchange and data aggregator platforms displayed massive percentage increases in trading volume—furnishing content for crypto news outlets and social media influencers.

Media, KOLs, and data platforms (including this article) reporting on these staggering figures rapidly generated a “hot token” social consensus, triggering FOMO among retail investors—akin to whale-driven trades on HL, where large orders serve as propaganda. This self-reinforcing cycle produced the parabolic price trajectory. More critically, this retail-driven capital influx provided the essential liquidity needed by early insiders and market manipulators to offload their holdings at elevated prices.

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

MYX’s price explosion was not merely a result of market enthusiasm but a composite outcome of carefully orchestrated events.

2.1 The Engine of Surge: Severe Derivatives Short Squeeze

The derivatives market served as the primary battlefield and core engine behind this price explosion.

Key Data: According to Coinglass, a massive liquidation event occurred on September 8, with total liquidations amounting to $14.63 million—of which $11 million stemmed from short positions being wiped out.

Mechanism Analysis: When MYX’s price surged past key technical resistance levels (e.g., $3.69), it triggered a cascade of forced liquidations of short positions. These short sellers were compelled to buy back MYX on the open market to cover their positions, instantly generating massive, involuntary buying pressure. This cascading mechanism created a vicious cycle: further price increases triggered more liquidations at higher levels, amplifying the upward momentum. The 50x leverage offered by MYX perpetual contracts magnified this effect, making the price hypersensitive to even minor fluctuations.

Amplifying Factor: Binance’s adjustment of MYX perpetual contract funding rate settlement frequency—from every 8 hours to every hour—further exacerbated short sellers’ pain. More frequent settlements increased the cost and uncertainty of holding short positions, effectively trapping them in losing trades and making them more vulnerable to upward price spikes.

2.2 Suspicion: Precisely Timed Token Unlock & VC Dump

If the short squeeze was the engine of the rally, then the timing of the token unlock revealed the “timing advantage” behind this move. (A masterstroke of “turning the tables”—using the market’s expectation of a post-unlock drop to one’s benefit.)

Event Coincidence: The price peak coincided perfectly with a major token unlock event. This release introduced 39 million MYX tokens into circulation—3.9% of the total supply. For a token with relatively low circulating supply, this represented a massive supply shock.

On-Chain Evidence: Post-unlock chain data tracking shows that prominent venture capital firm Hack VC transferred 835,000 MYX tokens to MEXC exchange—an unmistakable signal of preparation for a large-scale sell-off.

Historical Repetition: This is not isolated. After a similar unlock event in August, MYX’s price plummeted by 58%. This confirms a clear market pattern: token unlocks represent prime windows for early investors and insiders to exit and exert massive downward pressure, reinforcing a market-wide consensus that the token will likely drop after unlocking.

2.3 Allegations of Coordination & Wash Trading

Analyst Red Flags: Analyst Dominic on X presented a detailed analysis identifying multiple dangerous signals pointing toward market manipulation:

Disproportionate Volume: MYX’s daily perpetual contract trading volume suddenly surged to $6–9 billion—completely illogical for a token with far smaller market cap and liquidity, suggesting extensive non-genuine trading activity.

Coordinated Trading Patterns: Identical, programmatic trading patterns were observed across Bitget, PancakeSwap, and Binance. Such cross-platform synchronization is highly unlikely to emerge organically from independent market participants—it strongly suggests control by a single entity or a coordinated group using trading bots.

On-Chain Fund Aggregation: Chain data reveals that numerous small buy orders ultimately consolidated into a single centralized wallet address—a classic manipulation tactic used to obscure the true size and intent of a major player.

Wash trading creates artificial trading activity. Its purpose is to artificially inflate volume, misleading retail investors who interpret high volume as a sign of market health and strong liquidity. Once attracted, these retail traders become targets for the manipulator to offload tokens at inflated prices. The observed patterns in the MYX case closely align with the hallmarks of wash trading.

Part Three: Deconstructing the “Kill Shot”: A Strategic Post-Mortem

The core logic of this event: “The Kill Shot under High Spot Control.” This was not mere market mania but a meticulously planned, interconnected capital operation. The strategy can be broken down into the following steps:

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

Low Circulating Supply & High Internal Holdings: MYX has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. However, during the price peak, circulating supply was only around 197 million—under 20% of the total. According to the token distribution model, core contributors (20%) and investors (17.5%) collectively hold 37.5% of the total supply. Most of these tokens remain locked long-term, meaning that at any given time, the actual freely tradable “floating supply” is extremely limited.

Advantage of Control: This low-circulating, high-concentration structure creates ideal conditions for price manipulation. When the majority of tokens are controlled by a few entities, they can generate massive price volatility in the spot market with relatively small capital—clearing the path for subsequent derivatives manipulation.

3.2 Step Two: Igniting the Engine — Leveraging Spot to Manipulate Derivatives (Price Pump)

Whales used their spot market dominance to turn the derivatives arena into the central battleground for harvesting counterparties.

Creating a Short Squeeze: This is the core mechanism of the manipulation. By artificially inflating the spot price, manipulators precisely pushed the perpetual contract index price above critical technical levels (e.g., $3.69). This triggered a chain reaction: a wave of short positions were forcibly liquidated due to margin calls. These forced liquidations required short sellers to buy back MYX on the open market to cover their positions, creating massive, involuntary demand—and further pushing prices higher.

Staggering Liquidation Figures: On September 8, total liquidations across the network reached $14.63 million, with over $11 million coming from short positions being wiped out. This unequivocally demonstrates that one of the primary goals of raising the spot price was to precisely “hunt” shorts in the derivatives market.

3.3 Step Three: Expanding the Take — Marketing as the “Pump” (Attracting Counterparties)

The sensational price surge itself served as the most effective marketing tool.

Generating FOMO: An over 1,132% gain in just eight days (September 1–8), coupled with MYX briefly entering the top 35 by CMC market cap on September 9, captured the entire market’s attention. This parabolic rise spread rapidly through media and social platforms, instilling intense FOMO among retail investors.

Attracting New Counterparties: This extreme market sentiment successfully lured a flood of new traders into the market. Traders drawn by price appreciation opened long positions chasing gains, while those enticed by high funding rates and expectations of a pullback opened short positions. Regardless of direction, they became the very counterparties the manipulators needed—providing depth and liquidity for the next phase of harvesting.

3.4 Final Objective — Exiting at Height & Harvesting (Liquidating Longs & Shorts)

This meticulously orchestrated pump had a singular final goal: creating an exit window for insiders and enabling two-way harvesting of the market.

Synchronicity with Token Unlock: The price peak coincided remarkably with the unlock of 39 million MYX tokens. The pump created a perfect window of high liquidity and consistent bearish sentiment.

On-Chain Evidence: Shortly after the unlock, prominent VC firm Hack VC immediately transferred approximately $2.15 million worth of MYX tokens to an exchange. This indicates that retail investors became the “exit liquidity” for insiders—or perhaps it was a staged “bearish act” performed for public consumption?

Two-Way Harvesting: The game’s objective was to extract value from both sides.

During the upward push, by triggering short squeezes, the manipulators harvested short positions. Conversely, when the price collapsed, they could target longs.

After completing the spot distribution at the peak, the manipulators could reverse course and go short. As they ceased supporting the price and began dumping, the inevitable crash followed (as seen previously in August, when an unlock caused a 58% drop). At this point, long positions bought at the top would be fully liquidated. No matter whether you were long or short, the trigger for the explosion (the spot price) was entirely in someone else’s hands—your fate, whether profit or loss, depended entirely on their mercy.

In summary, MYX’s explosive rise was not a natural market response to technological or fundamental strength, but a calculated “kill shot” executed via highly concentrated spot control, using spot price as leverage to orchestrate a strategic massacre in the derivatives market. The core purpose was to generate viral marketing effects that attracted vast numbers of traders as counterparties, enabling precise short squeezes while simultaneously creating ideal liquidity conditions for insiders to offload newly unlocked tokens at peak prices—ultimately achieving a two-sided harvest of the entire market.

Part Four: Conclusion

These seemingly independent events—the V2 product narrative, short squeeze, token unlock, and wash trading allegations—are actually part of a tightly integrated, meticulously planned strategy. First, insiders anticipated the date of the 39 million token unlock. To sell at the highest possible price, they needed to pre-create massive demand. Thus, they either fabricated or amplified official narratives and social media buzz around the V2 upgrade, providing a “fundamental” justification for the upcoming rally. Then, they may have used trading bots across major exchanges to conduct wash trades, fabricating the illusion of high volume and gradually pushing prices upward. By the time the first wave of shorts entered, the trap was already set.

Next, the manipulators injected a critical amount of capital to violently push prices above key liquidation thresholds, triggering a massive short squeeze. At this point, the buying pressure from forced liquidations became the primary fuel driving the parabolic price surge—rendering further capital injection unnecessary. Finally, at the price peak, amid maximum FOMO and on the same day as the token unlock, they secured their dream exit window: an exceptionally high selling price and a vast pool of retail buyers ready to absorb the supply. The newly unlocked 39 million tokens flooded the market, while retail investors unfortunately became the very “exit liquidity” their manipulative counterparts sought.