The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is signaling its commitment to combating inflation with more aggressive monetary tightening. Governor Kazuo Ueda has reaffirmed the central bank’s stance on potential interest rate hikes, sending shockwaves through the financial markets.
In a recent statement, Ueda emphasized that the BOJ remains prepared to adjust its monetary policy stance if economic conditions warrant. His comments sparked a rally in the Japanese yen against the US dollar, with the currency appreciating significantly during Tokyo trading.
The BOJ’s latest stance marks a departure from its historically loose monetary policy. The central bank has already implemented several rate hikes, including a significant increase in July. These moves aim to address rising inflation rates, which have exceeded the BOJ’s target of 2%.
While the BOJ’s actions have been met with some concerns about their impact on the economy, Governor Ueda has assured investors that the central bank is closely monitoring financial markets. He has emphasized the importance of maintaining stability and avoiding excessive volatility.
The BOJ’s tightening measures have also had implications for the yen carry trade, a popular investment strategy that involves borrowing yen at low interest rates and investing the proceeds in higher-yielding assets. As the yen has strengthened, the attractiveness of this trade has diminished, leading to a decline in its popularity.
However, there may be opportunities for investors in the yuan carry trade. This strategy involves borrowing yuan and investing in higher-yielding assets, and it is less susceptible to the volatility associated with the yen carry trade. According to the Royal Bank of Canada, the yuan carry trade could be a more resilient option given China’s dovish monetary policy.
As the BOJ continues to navigate the challenges of inflation and economic growth, its decisions will have a significant impact on global financial markets. Investors will be closely watching the central bank’s future moves for clues about the direction of interest rates and the yen.
In a convoluted and dramatic scandal, HyperLiquid was rocked today by a massive JELLY short squeeze. It was forced to assume one trader’s liabilities, leaving it on the hook for $230 million.
As this situation developed, major CEXs like Binance and OKX listed JELLY perpetuals in what looks like a direct attack. HyperLiquid delisted the token, sparking extreme controversy.
Essentially, massive JELLY whales managed to manipulate the meme coin price, causing losses in HyperLiquid’s HLP vault.
“A massive whale with 124.6 million JELLYJELLY ($4.85 million) is manipulating its price to make Hyperliquidity Provider (HLP) face a loss of $12 million. He first dumped the token, crashing the price and leaving HLP with a passive short position of $15.3 million. Then he bought it back, driving the price up—causing HLP to suffer a loss of nearly $12 million,” LookonChain claimed via social media.
So, essentially, JELLY JELLY initially surged nearly 500% today. This dramatic jump was sparked by what’s called a “short squeeze.” It occurs when someone bets heavily that a coin’s price will fall (known as “shorting”), but instead, the price unexpectedly rises.
In this case, a trader borrowed a massive amount of JELLY tokens and sold them immediately. He expected the price to drop, buy the tokens back cheaper, and keep the difference as profit.
Unfortunately for the trader, the price didn’t fall—it skyrocketed, forcing them to buy back the coins at much higher prices, creating massive losses.
This sudden forced buying pushed the price even higher, catching the attention of traders and investors who jumped in to ride the wave. In under an hour, JELLY’s market cap rapidly increased from $10 million to $43 million.
This frenzy also left Hyperliquid, the exchange involved, holding a big loss of $6.5 million from the trader’s failed short position, sparking speculation about potential financial stress on the platform.
Meanwhile, Binance and OKX listed JELLY perpetuals, further driving its price up. So the potential loss became even larger for Hyperliquid. Some users even urged Binance and other competitors to list the token and deal a ‘death blow’ to Hyperliquid.
Binance Users Urging Officials to List JELLY JELLY and Trigger Losses for Hyperliquid. Source: X (formerly Twitter)
Binance is Apparently Trying to Liquidate HyperLiquid
In a very interesting twist, it looks like these competitors are heeding the call. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, was hit with a wave of requests to list JELLY JELLY, thereby causing big losses for HyperLiquid.
Yi He, one of its co-founders, said she would consider a listing, and crypto sleuth ZachXBT claimed that the original whale was funded via Binance.
Shortly after these developments happened, Binance announced that it would begin offering perpetuals contracts for JELLY.
OKX also jumped on the bandwagon with perpetuals trading of its own. After this, HyperLiquid announced that it would delist JELLY JELLY, seemingly erasing its unrealized losses.
“After evidence of suspicious market activity, the validator set convened and voted to delist JELLY perps. All users apart from flagged addresses will be made whole from the Hyper Foundation. This will be done automatically in the coming days based on onchain data. There is no need to open a ticket. Methodology will be shared in detail in a later announcement,” HyperLiquid’s statement claimed.
This radical action immediately caused an explosion on social media. HyperLiquid’s supporters expressed unease over the JELLY JELLY incident, while its detractors accused the firm of criminal activity.
The firm’s validators confirmed that they unanimously took the decision, partially rebutting rumors that its CEO acted alone.
Still, there are no mincing words here. If HyperLiquid can simply declare its JELLY JELLY liabilities null and void, that’s a highly destabilizing act.
The way it handled the $JELLY incident was immature, unethical, and unprofessional, triggering user losses and casting serious doubts over its integrity. Despite presenting itself as an innovative decentralized exchange with a…