Is Aptos (APT) Being Manipulated? Suspicious Liquidation Data Suggests So

Aptos has been one of the most popular positions on the cryptocurrency market since its initial listing and release. However, the price performance of the token itself was not the most outstanding and could not be considered below average. Unfortunately, the reason behind it leads us to unpleasant conclusions.

A price move that the majority of traders and investors most likely did not notice inspired some serious suspicion into the nature of Aptos' price performance. On Jan. 16, at 7:00 p.m. UTC, APT had a noteworthy spike in the number of short orders on the market. Such a rapid rise in the number of sellers would most likely not cause a rapid correction on the market, which, however, did not happen.

On a five-minute chart, we can clearly see that APT saw an enormous spike in buying power as soon as a solid amount of short orders was opened. Such a rapid spike was not backed by any funding, which led to the formation of a "knife" or candlestick shadow.

Such a rapid occurrence of buying volume could hint at the direct market manipulation needed to avoid the unnecessary reversal during the market-wide recovery.

As CoinGlass market tracking service suggests, APT saw a noteworthy $129 million worth of liquidation on that day, while the market has been relatively calm and quiet. Some users assumed that certain institutions behind Aptos are willing to push the price of the token to listing levels in order to attract more investments, who mostly look back at the asset's profitability.

Despite the most recent rally on the market, APT is still trading 92% below the ATH reached on the listing day.