10th "curse" lifted? How a lawsuit caused the crypto market to surge by 170 billion in one day

Just as everyone was about to treat the “10 o’clock dump” as a meme in the crypto market, this meme surprisingly stopped.

On February 25, Bitcoin, along with Ethereum and Solana, experienced a vigorous rally. According to data from platforms like HTX, Bitcoin briefly reached the $70,000 mark, Ethereum surged over 13%, and Solana was not to be outdone, rising more than 15%. This rally caused the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies to soar, adding approximately $170 billion, approaching $2.5 trillion.

What makes this rebound exciting is that it ended the awkward, sluggish decline since the high point in October last year. However, if you think this was just a routine technical rebound, you might be missing the even more fascinating story behind it.

1. Rumor Mill: The Mysterious “10 O’clock Man”

● The story begins a few months ago. Around October 2025, some attentive crypto analysts and traders noticed a strange phenomenon: every day at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, Bitcoin markets would suddenly experience a wave of concentrated selling.

● The amount sold was significant, with rumors ranging from $160 million to over $300 million. It was as if an invisible whale had set an alarm clock every day solely to dump. This mysterious force persisted for months, causing market panic. Retail traders would get nervous at 10 o’clock, trembling in their longs, while shorts sat glued to their screens, waiting to profit.

● The crypto community gave this force various nicknames, calling it directly the “10 O’clock Man.” Everyone speculated about who he was, but it remained just guesses. On social media, on-chain analyst Nonzee even lamented: “For months, 10 a.m. only means one thing: someone is dumping.”

2. A Lawsuit Cuts Off the “10 O’clock Alarm”

Until February 24, when a lawsuit was filed in Manhattan Federal Court, the story suddenly took an interesting turn.

● The plaintiff was none other than the bankruptcy estate of Terraform Labs, the culprit behind the $40 billion wealth wipeout, the “crypto winter,” and indirectly the collapse of FTX. The defendant was Wall Street’s top quantitative trading firm—Jane Street Capital.

● According to the complaint seen by Bloomberg, bankruptcy trustee Todd Snyder accused Jane Street of engaging in “front-running” during the Terra collapse in 2022, using non-public information obtained from insiders at Terraform Labs.

○ The complaint described a shocking detail: on May 7, 2022, Terraform Labs quietly withdrew 150 million TerraUSD (UST) from a Curve liquidity pool without market disclosure. Less than 10 minutes later, Jane Street sold 85 million UST in the same pool, accelerating UST’s de-pegging and collapse.

● Ironically, after dumping the tokens, Jane Street reportedly tried to contact Do Kwon, hoping to buy Bitcoin or Luna tokens at a steep discount. This news caused an uproar in the crypto community. The very next day—February 25, at 10 a.m. Eastern— the “alarm” that had sounded for months did not ring for the first time.

● Crypto commentator Bark excitedly tweeted: “Jane Street has been running an algorithm that sells Bitcoin every day at 10 a.m. This has been going on for months, causing prices to fall, liquidating retail traders, then buying back at lower prices. Once they were sued, this behavior stopped, and the 10 o’clock sell-off disappeared. Now Bitcoin is seeing its best single-day performance in months.”

3. Truth and Speculation: Is It “Voluntary Stop” or “Forced Pause”?

● Of course, this is still just “rumors” plus “official lawsuit,” with no concrete evidence that Jane Street is the “whale” dumping at 10 o’clock every day. After all, if a top quant firm really had such a regular, trackable dumping algorithm, it would be pretty foolish— even crypto KOL Wise Advice expressed skepticism.

● Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented aptly: “The big villain is gone. That’s the current vibe on Crypto Twitter and the price action.” Everyone is betting that the long-standing “Damocles sword” hanging overhead has been lifted.

● From a technical perspective, some traders pointed out that market liquidity was already very thin at that time, and with US President Trump’s upcoming State of the Union address, many sell orders had already pulled liquidity, amplifying price swings. But regardless, the expectation that “potential selling pressure has weakened” definitely gave the long-suffering market a boost.

4. Jane Street’s Response and the Bigger Game

● In response to these allegations, Jane Street’s spokesperson was assertive, calling the claims “baseless, speculative, and opportunistic” and vowed to strongly contest them. They emphasized that the losses of Terra and Luna holders were entirely due to Terraform Labs’ own fraudulent behavior involving hundreds of billions.

● Notably, this isn’t the only case. Two months earlier, Terraform’s bankruptcy estate also filed a similar lawsuit against another Wall Street giant—Jump Trading—accusing it of profiting billions during the Terra collapse. It seems the estate is determined to investigate who was really behind that “massacre.”

5. Market Confidence Returns

● As of press time, Bitcoin has not stabilized above $70,000, but the bullish candle sparked by the “10 o’clock curse” has left a deep impression on traders. Over the past 24 hours, over $200 million in short positions were liquidated, and those speculators who believed “it must fall at 10” contributed the most to this rebound.

● Regardless, this story serves as a reminder to all market participants: in this news-driven crypto world, sometimes a lawsuit can not only bring legal consequences but also force a long-running quantitative algorithm to shut down.

● That daily 10 o’clock alarm, at least for today, was silenced by a lawsuit. Whether this is a permanent peace or just a pause before a storm, we shall see.