Mysterious Whale Slams $50M Short On ETH, Pairs It With $25M BTC Long

Markets 2026-05-17 23:29

Mysterious Whale Slams M Short On ETH, Pairs It With M BTC Long

A whale opened a 25x leveraged short on Ethereum (ETH) worth $50.55 million while staking $25.27 million long on Bitcoin (BTC), splitting conviction across the top two tokens.

Whale Splits $76M Across ETH Short, BTC Long

Wallet 0x50b3 placed the asymmetric bet as Ether traded near $2,193 on Sunday, according to data flagged by on-chain tracker Lookonchain.

The trader staked 23,151 ETH on the short side and 323.72 BTC on the long. The setup profits if Bitcoin holds while Ether keeps sliding.

Bitcoin currently trades near $78,400, leaving roughly $8,000 of headroom before the long-side liquidation level at $70,325. Ether sits less than 5% above the short-side liquidation at $2,288.

Also Read: XRP ETFs Hit Record $1.39B But Token Loses 4th Spot To BNB

Matrixport Trader Doubles Down On ETH Longs

A separate whale linked to Matrixport, which previously banked $59 million in profit, extended Ether longs to 114,160 ETH worth $248.65 million across four wallets.

The position carries $10.3 million in unrealized losses.

The trader added size on the long side even as price action weakened.

An early Ethereum holder with an 803x historical return also returned to accumulate. The wallet bought 1,951 ETH for $4.26 million USDC at $2,182, more than a year after offloading the original 11,005 ETH lot at $2,777.

The conviction trades signal that some sophisticated players see the slide as a buying window. Others read the same chart as a setup for further weakness.

Panic Selling Pressure Mounts

Selling pressure tells a darker story. A wallet tied to Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial sold 4,870 ETH for $10.61 million in USD Coin (USDC) at $2,178, roughly eight hours before the broader market reset.

Two addresses possibly linked to Gammafund deposited 10,976 ETH worth $23.9 million into Binance over a single hour. The flow pattern echoes earlier de-risking by institutional holders.

Ether has shed more than 25% over the past month and slipped to a 10-month low against Bitcoin last week. The 25x short proving prescient or premature now hinges on whether dip buyers absorb that supply at the $2,200 floor.

Read Next: Hyperliquid Rejects Wall Street's Manipulation Claims As HYPE Drops 14%

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This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

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