A blockchain investigation by crypto analyst Eye has connected the elusive Hyperliquid whale, who controls over 100,000 BTC, to Garrett Jin, the former CEO of BitForex, an exchange now shut down due to a fraud scandal.
In a Saturday update on X, the blockchain investigator highlighted that the whale’s main wallet, ereignis.eth, was linked to another ENS name, garrettjin.eth, which leads directly to Jin’s verified X (Twitter) account, @GarrettBullish.
“The ENS name ereignis.eth (“event” in German) validates his connection to this wallet, identifying him as the individual behind the extensive operations on Hyperliquid/Hyperunit,” Eye mentioned on X.
The wallet activity corresponded with Jin’s documented business transactions, including payments to staking contracts and addresses associated with exchanges he previously worked with, such as Huobi (HTX).
Additionally, the whale’s wallet has both received and dispatched funds that traced back to addresses tied to BitForex and to Binance deposits used for significant trades, including a $735 million Bitcoin (BTC) short.
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BitForex accused of fraud
Jin commanded BitForex from 2017 to 2020. The exchange faced allegations of inflating trading volumes and was flagged by Japan’s Financial Services Agency for operating without proper registration.
In 2024, BitForex lost $57 million from its hot wallets, halted withdrawals, and eventually closed after its team was apprehended in China. Hong Kong’s SFC subsequently issued a warning regarding suspected fraud, with users claiming to have lost millions in unrecovered funds.
After BitForex’s downfall, Jin started several ventures, including WaveLabs VC (2020), TanglePay (2021), IotaBee (2022), and GroupFi (2023). Most of these initiatives have since become inactive.
In 2024, he introduced XHash.com, a platform for institutional Ethereum staking, which investigators suspect may have facilitated onboarding of dubious funds. Following these claims, Jin reportedly removed XHash from his social media biography, although it remains visible on his Telegram account.
Related: MetaMask, Infinex tap Hyperliquid to challenge CEXs in perps market
Not everyone is convinced
Crypto analyst Quinten François voiced doubts regarding the allegations linking the Hyperliquid whale to the former BitForex CEO, suggesting that the evidence may appear overly convenient.
“Why would you have an .eth name pointing to your X handle in a wallet that directly links to market manipulation wallets and wallets associated with other crimes?” he stated on X, adding that such a scenario “sounds far too simplistic to be accurate.”
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