"Whales (professional traders) act as market makers on "self-regulated" crypto exchanges, and pay no fees to these exchanges and do not want to trade against each other (which is why such trades are called "toxic flow").
These market makers run ultra-HF algos that can perform trades (like "layering" and "spoofing") that are illegal on ordinary exchanges.
In 2023 the algos will be configured to manage a bitcoin bull run. Why?
Well, how else will they draw retail traders like you and me (who are now very scared) back to trading crypto?
Both market makers and exchanges need retail investors to come back. Exchanges need their fee income (market makers pay no fees), and for market makers it is because when their algos are equally good (i.e. not Alameda's) they have only a 50-50 change of winning a trade.
But retail investors who take risky, leveraged positions are very likely to be wiped out
The person behind this incredibly accurate post (a veteran professor of finance, former quant turned crypto expert) is super bearish right now.
No time line, but predicting a possible luna/terra type event, maybe worse across defi with Lido and stETH de-peg being the likely catalyst. $8 billion of staked ETH is potentially at risk. Describes the situation as a house of cards.
For comparison remember protocols like Anchor and luna offered 20% returns before blowing up. Few months ago protocols like lido offered 5% for staking, now they are promising 40% Huge red flag!
If it looks too good to be true, it probably is...