A massive Ethereum whale has thrown in the towel. Liquid Capital‘s investment arm, tracked by blockchain sleuth Lookonchain, has practically abandoned its massive ETH position after racking up a staggering $747 million in losses. Talk about a crypto nightmare.
The firm had been on an aggressive buying spree throughout late 2025, leveraging Aave loans to build a monster position. By January 20, 2026, they’d amassed over 650,000 ETH worth $1.92 billion. They even borrowed 70 million USDT just to buy another 24,555 ETH. FOMO much?
Leveraging themselves to the moon, this crypto whale binged on Ethereum like it was the last call at the digital bar.
Well, that strategy backfired spectacularly. The whale has now returned 772,865 ETH to Binance at an average price of $2,326 per token. Simple math tells the painful story – they bought at $3,267 and sold at $2,326. Ouch.
They’re not alone in their suffering. The broader Ethereum market has been absolutely crushed, plunging below $1,900 and posting year-to-date losses of 37%. Since its $4,700 peak, ETH has collapsed 55% over just four months. October’s crash triggered a staggering $19 billion in liquidations across the crypto market.
Even Ethereum creator crucially Vitalik Buterin sold 6,183 ETH for $13.24 million recently. He’s still sitting on 224,105 ETH worth about $430 million, but still – when the founder sells, people notice.
This whole fiasco highlights the dangers of leveraged crypto bets. Another whale, Hyperunit, lost $250 million on a similar leveraged position. Guess some lessons need to be learned the hard way.
The aftermath could actually create a supply squeeze that supports prices. Despite the bearish market sentiment, other institutional players like OTC whale 0xFB7 have been buying ETH worth $58.8 million. This contrasts with other major players like Trend Research who made a significant 203,000 ETH deposit recently. With major players reducing circulating supply and exchange liquidity, there’s less ETH to go around.
But with macro headwinds from Fed policy and stock correlations, plus institutional ETH ETF outflows hitting $2.5 billion over four months, don’t hold your breath for a quick recovery.
Sometimes the whales get beached too.
While Bitcoin maintains its market dominance of approximately 62.7%, Ethereum and other altcoins continue to face these dramatic price swings.
