Whale Nets $7M Profit from Leveraged Crypto Shorts Amid Market Decline

Whale Nets $7M Profit from Leveraged Crypto Shorts Amid Market Decline

Recent whale trades show shifting positions in BTC, ETH, XMR, and DASH, including high-leverage shorts and hedged longs during intraday market adjustments.

BTC
ETH
XMR

Fact Check
The evidence from the provided sources strongly supports the statement. Two highly relevant news articles from cryptocurrency exchanges directly corroborate the core elements of the claim. One article explicitly reports that on-chain data shows a major short seller's unrealized profit increased significantly after a flash crash involving ETH. Another article provides a very specific and closely matching figure, mentioning a trader making a $1.6 million profit from short positions following a flash crash. The minor discrepancy between the reported $1.6 million and the stated $1.7 million is likely due to the fluctuating nature of unrealized profits in volatile crypto markets or slight variations in reporting, and it does not undermine the fundamental truth of the event. The most authoritative source, a premier on-chain analytics firm, is described as the origin for this type of data, lending high credibility to the news reports that rely on such analysis. The remaining sources are either tangentially relevant or purely educational and do not contradict the claim. The consistency across multiple credible sources makes the statement highly likely to be true.
Summary

On January 20, whale activity between 10:00 and 20:00 included closing 242 BTC longs with a $1.042 million loss, opening 99.8 BTC longs, and shorting 6,355 ETH as a hedge. Meanwhile, other whales increased Monero (XMR) shorts with 5x leverage and became top DASH short holders with 20x leverage. This follows earlier trends where large traders profited from leveraged BTC and ETH shorts while maintaining significant bearish exposure across multiple cryptocurrencies.

Terms & Concepts
  • Whale: A term used to describe an individual or entity that holds large amounts of cryptocurrency and can significantly influence market prices.
  • Short Position: A trading strategy involving selling borrowed assets, aiming to buy them back later at a lower price for profit.
  • Leverage: The use of borrowed funds to increase the size of a trading position, amplifying both potential gains and losses.