[themihai]

All of them are at fault. The broker, DTCC and the hedge funds. The market is not functioning as a free market or "it is rigged" for various reasons.

The CEO of the biggest brokerage company says he has halted the "buy" side because it wanted to protect his clients(hedge funds) and his money and it will resume the trading when the prices reaches $17. If you dig deeper you may find that the DTCC/clearinghouses may have a vested interest in a specific position as their investors may be invested in that position (i.e. short).

Of course there might have been just a risk management issue and no collusion but in practice and in essence as well this was just a way to save the hedge funds(the client)'s money and ripoff the retailers(the product).

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RH4XKP55fM