What's the point of the fees? Haha. At the top margin, $river's short position roughly incurs a funding fee of 5M per day, far exceeding the costs of spot market manipulation and positioning. Moreover, after a few times at the top margin, the timeframe will change from 4 hours to 1 hour, which makes the cash flow very scary.

Looking at the futures price difference of 10+ when pulling the spot a few times, it's clear that there's no need to spend money in the derivatives market; just control the spot to cover the fees, endure for a while, and clear when possible. If it can't be cleared, let the shorts have a taste of soup and continue playing next time.