An ether The bull was caught tilting sharply higher this week as the cryptocurrency crashed, turning the whale’s bet into a multimillion-dollar horror story.
That bull is Trend Research, a trading company led by Liquid Capital founder Jack Yi. The company has spent recent months building a $2 billion (long) bullish bet on ether by borrowing stablecoins from DeFi giant Aave, which would have been collateralized by ether.
The position blew up this week, leaving the company with a loss of $686 million, according to Arkham.
The explosion underscores the unchanged reality of the crypto market: volatility can still make or break traders in a single week. It also shows how traders continue to pursue risky leveraged loop plays – borrowing stablecoins against ETH collateral – despite these bets exploding dramatically with each downtrend.
How did it go
The team was convinced of ether’s long-term potential and expected a quick rebound after its October fall below $4,000.
But that never came to fruition – ether continued to slide, putting their long position in “loop ether” at risk. As prices fell, the stablecoin collateral backing the leveraged bet declined, while fixed debt dominated in the classic leveraged fashion.
The final blow came this month as ether began to fall rapidly along with bitcoin. and on February 4, prices fell to $1,750, the lowest level since April 2025. Trend Research responded by liquidating more than 300,000 ether, according to data source Bubble Maps.
“Trend Research began sending large amounts of ETH to Binance to repay debt on AAVE. In total, this cluster transferred 332,000 ETH worth $700 million to Binance over 5 days,” Bubble Maps said on X. The company now only holds 1,463 ETH.
Jack Yi described these sales as a risk control measure.
“As a multi-head in this cycle, we remain optimistic about the performance of the new bull market: ETH hits over $10,000, BTC exceeds $200,000. We are just making some adjustments to control risk, with no change in our expectations for the future mega bull market,” Yi said in an article on X.
He added that now is the best time to buy tokens, calling volatility the main feature of the crypto circle. “Historically, countless bulls have been shaken by this volatility, but what often follows is a double bounce,” he noted.
