Bitcoin

Solana

When almost 1.3B dollars’ worth of crypto positions get wiped out in seven days, you either learn fast or donate. Earlier in the week,<a href="https://www.cointribune.com/en/massive-liquidations-shake-up-the-crypto-market/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> reports</a> like “Massive Liquidations Shake Up the Crypto Market” were already tracking a short squeeze; later, KuCoin’s data<a href="https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/bitcoin-slides-below-93-000-as-680-million-longs-are-liquidated" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> showed</a> long liquidations near 680M; the rest was bears getting steamrolled earlier in the move.
I look at that kind of week through two lenses. In one life, I’m a forecast hunter who lives and dies by direction. In the other, I’m a liquidity provider who gets paid to stand in the spread. I’ve done both, and after trying Market Making programs on a few venues, I’ve ended up sticking with WhiteBIT’s.
Here’s how that sort of week would have looked for me as a pure “directional genius” – and how it actually played out with a market-making program behind me.
<h2 id="strong-without-market-making-one-xrp-long-one-sol-short-strong">Without Market Making: one XRP long, one SOL short</h2>
With a 20,000 USDT account in a week like this, my “forecast hunter” version of reality was simple: I chased an XRP squeeze from the low 2s, went long around 2.85 with roughly 10,000 USDT notional on 5×, and then watched the pair roll over into the 2.30–2.40 zone as late longs got liquidated. I bailed near 2.35, locking in about –1,750 USDT plus roughly –40 USDT in taker fees - one trade, close to 10% of the account gone.
To ‘fix it’, I faded a sharp move on SOL: short around 158 with ~12,000 USDT notional on 3×. The first leg worked — I took profit on part of the move — but between late covers and a couple of intraday re-entries around SOL and other majors, I ended up roughly –800 USDT net on everything I did after that first XRP trade. By the end of the week, my PnL sat around –2,100 USDT, or about –11% down.
<h2 id="strong-with-market-making-on-whitebit-getting-paid-to-sit-in-the-middle-strong">With Market Making on WhiteBIT: getting paid to sit in the middle</h2>
Same 20,000 USDT, same week, but I’m trading as a market maker. I’d already tried MM setups on a few exchanges; spreads were fine in some places, but clunky tools or fee tiers killed the edge.
On my current tier under the <a href="https://institutional.whitebit.com/market-making-program" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">WhiteBIT Market Making</a> program, my spot maker fee sits slightly below zero (around –0.01%) and taker is in the 0.02–0.03% range, instead of the default 0.1%, and between sub-accounts and a light API, I can keep limit orders resting on both sides of the book instead of mashing market.
On XRP I’m no longer all-in long; I’m quoting a range roughly 2.30–2.95 with many small orders of 500–700 USDT. That week, I turned over about 250,000 USDT as a maker: the average spread I captured was ~0.18% (around +450 USDT), maker rebates and fee discounts added roughly +120 USDT, and marking down leftover inventory at the end of the week cost about –220 USDT. Net: +350 USDT on XRP instead of –1,750.
On SOL, the pattern is similar but a bit tighter: working roughly 135–165 USDT, about 300,000 USDT in maker volume, spread plus rebates around +480 USDT, inventory adjustment about –150 USDT, so roughly +330 USDT net.
Two smaller pairs added another +250–300 USDT, which put my total PnL for that kind of liquidation-heavy week at about +900 USDT on the same 20,000 USDT account. Both liquidation waves just meant more flow through my quotes instead of a second chance to blow up.
Weekly PnL: about –11% without MM vs +4.5% with WhiteBIT market making:<img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/srd-optimized-uploads/5f03cbfaa9374ff1bc0a4757b8c7821d.png">

Once you see that kind of spread between –11% and +4.5% on the same week, a lot of clichés about market making start to sound different.
<h2 id="strong-faq-five-myths-about-market-making-from-the-liquidity-side-strong">FAQ: Five Myths About Market Making From the Liquidity Side</h2>
Myth 1: “If I nail direction, I’ll always beat a market maker.”
I did believe XRP would probably be higher months from now. The market didn’t disagree; it just punished my entry, leverage, and patience. In the MM version, I don’t need a perfect path, only movement inside my range.
Myth 2: “Market making is only for funds and HFT shops.”
The stereotype is a hedge fund in a data centre. My reality is simpler: a normal workstation, a public API, and a rule set for how I quote and when I pull risk. On the MM program, my fees depend on how much liquidity I actually provide — volume and activity — rather than just raw click trading.
Myth 3: “In extreme volatility, the liquidity provider dies first.”
For a market maker, volatility is not the enemy – it’s the raw material. The forecast hunter bets a few big positions on a specific scenario; the MM spreads risk across a price range, trims inventory when it grows too large, and treats every spike as more flow rather than a personal attack.
Myth 4: “Market making is just averaging into losers.”
Blind averaging is what you do because you’re emotionally attached to a level. Market making is much more straightforward: pre-define the range where you’ll hold size, the maximum inventory you allow, and the point where you stop quoting and focus on exiting.
Myth 5: “Once you join an MM program, it’s passive income.”
Better fees, sub-accounts, a stable API, and solid support help, but the decisions are still on you: which pairs to quote, what ranges you accept, and how much inventory you’re willing to carry during double liquidation waves. I don’t watch the screen 24/7, but I also don’t pretend the program prints money if I ignore it.
Core myths about market making vs how a real liquidity provider actually works:<img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/srd-optimized-uploads/11fc5b5ae05041509831329050953069.png">

<h2 id="strong-takeaway-being-a-prophet-or-a-counterparty-strong">Takeaway: being a prophet or a counterparty</h2>
That week, with roughly 1.3B in liquidations, didn’t prove that directional trading is dead. I still sometimes take pure directional setups when they’re worth it.
What it did prove to me is that, in a market obsessed with guessing the next move, there’s underrated value in being the one quietly providing liquidity to everyone else.
I’ve cycled through several MM programs. I stayed with WhiteBIT’s because the fee structure and tooling finally made that role economically sane for me: I get paid to be the counterparty instead of paying the market for the privilege of being “almost right” on direction.
As a forecast hunter, I’m down double digits. As a liquidity provider, I finish slightly tired – and up around 900 USDT.
For a market that can run two full liquidation waves in seven days, that difference is enough to decide which side of the order book I want to be on.

Same 20,000 USDT, Different Role: My Week Without vs With Market Making

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Tyler McKnight

Other articles published on Jan 21, 2026

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