They weren't net short by design since they have to stay delta neutral. They were long spot and short futures. However when the liquidations started happening, the futures to spot premium went outta whack.
So instead of locking in some spread they target, they ended up benefitting with a much larger profit.
And BitMart has no option to trade in USD. They trade exclusively in USDT. Tether might not have a hand in the hack, but they definitely have a hand in providing liquidity to exchanges which they print out of thin air with no actual 1-to-1 USD backing.
The Tether part was to highlight how this space is rife with scams, both on the shadow banking side and on the exchange side of things.
https://twitter.com/AlamedaTrabucco/status/14672197436901416...
So instead of locking in some spread they target, they ended up benefitting with a much larger profit.
And BitMart has no option to trade in USD. They trade exclusively in USDT. Tether might not have a hand in the hack, but they definitely have a hand in providing liquidity to exchanges which they print out of thin air with no actual 1-to-1 USD backing.
The Tether part was to highlight how this space is rife with scams, both on the shadow banking side and on the exchange side of things.