Crypto doesn’t move randomly — it hunts liquidity. That’s the part most traders miss.
Market structure in crypto often looks clean: higher highs, higher lows, breakouts everywhere. But because liquidity is thin and fragmented across exchanges, price is constantly engineered to run stops before making the real move. What looks like a breakout is often just a liquidity grab. What looks like a breakdown is bait.
The trap works like this:
Retail traders are taught to buy breakouts and sell breakdowns. Market makers know exactly where those orders sit. Price pushes just far enough to trigger them… then snaps back hard. The result? Late entries, tight stops, emotional exits.
Another issue: crypto trades 24/7. No open, no close, no reset. That means structure breaks don’t always mean trend shifts — often they’re just temporary dislocations caused by leverage getting flushed.
The traders who survive stop chasing “confirmation.” They wait for reaction: how price behaves after liquidity is taken. Structure doesn’t break when a line is crossed — it breaks when participants are forced out.
That’s the game. Most never realize they’re the fuel.