The $11 billion Bitcoin whale has re-emerged with another substantial short position, indicating that some major investors are preparing for further downturns in the crypto market amid tariff worries and an ongoing government shutdown.
This Bitcoin whale, a term used for significant investors, has returned with a $235 million 10-times leveraged short position on Bitcoin (BTC), effectively betting on the decline of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The large investor initiated the short position on Monday, when Bitcoin was priced at $111,190. Currently, this investor faces a $2.6 million unrealized loss, which will be liquidated if Bitcoin exceeds $112,368, as per Hypurrscan blockchain data.
This new short position follows a week after the same whale earned approximately $200 million from the crypto market crash with a similar leveraged short position.
In trading, leverage is a strategy that enables investors to open larger positions than they can afford by “borrowing” funds. Although leveraged trading can heighten potential gains, it also magnifies risks and can lead to complete loss of the investment.
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“The whale that made $200M by shorting the Bitcoin crash to $100K has now transferred $30M to Hyperliquid and is shorting again,” noted blockchain data platform Arkham in a Monday X post.
Additionally, the whale transferred $540 million in Bitcoin to new wallets, which included $220 million to wallets on the Coinbase exchange over the past week.
The $11 billion Bitcoin whale first appeared two months ago and rotated about $5 billion worth of BTC into Ether (ETH), briefly surpassing Sharplink, the second-largest corporate treasury, in total ETH holdings, as reported by Cointelegraph on Sept. 1.
Significant selling from previously dormant Bitcoin whales was among the key elements restricting Bitcoin’s price movements in August, according to analyst and early Bitcoin adopter Willy Woo.
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New Bitcoin whales encounter $6.95 billion in unrealized losses after crypto market crash
In the meantime, new Bitcoin whales are facing a collective unrealized loss of over $6.95 billion after the recent crypto market crash brought Bitcoin below the critical $113,000 level.
“Bitcoin is trading below its average cost basis of ~$113K, leaving it with $6.95B in unrealized losses, the highest since October 2023,” wrote crypto analytics platform CryptoQuant in a Tuesday X post, adding that this group “holds about 45% of the total Whale Realized Cap.”
Despite the drop in investor sentiment, analysts viewed Bitcoin’s four-day plunge to $104,000 as a healthy correction that eliminated excess leverage, encouraging more conservative strategies among market players.
At the same time, the supply of short-term Bitcoin holders has increased, and “speculative capital” is claiming a larger portion of the market, as noted by blockchain analytics firm Glassnode in a report on Tuesday.
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