NEW YORK — A veteran Bitcoin investor ramped up bets on Ethereum Thursday by depositing $20 million in stablecoins to open a new leveraged position, bringing his total exposure to the second-largest cryptocurrency to $334 million amid a volatile market, according to blockchain tracker Lookonchain.
The investor, often called a “Bitcoin OG” in crypto circles for holding assets since 2018, created a fresh wallet and used 6x leverage to go long on Ethereum, Lookonchain said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The move adds to positions across five wallets holding 78,265 Ethereum tokens.
Earlier in the day, the same investor closed out some leveraged perpetual contracts — high-risk trades that can amplify gains or losses — and shifted to buying Ethereum outright on the spot market. Lookonchain reported the whale deposited an additional 1,000 Bitcoin, worth about $114 million, to the Hyperliquid trading platform and acquired 19,794 Ethereum tokens valued at $85 million over six hours.
The activity began with the sale of 670.1 Bitcoin for $76 million, which was used to open initial long positions totaling 68,130 Ethereum tokens worth $295 million across four wallets, per Lookonchain’s initial tracking. On-chain data linked the trader to 14,837 Bitcoin received seven years ago from exchanges HTX and Binance, when the holdings were worth $107.5 million at an average price of $7,242 per Bitcoin. Those assets are now valued at roughly $1.69 billion.
Ethereum’s price fell 8.2% in the past 24 hours to around $4,265, according to data from Binance, contrasting the investor’s bullish stance. Bitcoin traded near $113,950. Hyperliquid, a layer-1 blockchain platform known for high-speed perpetual futures trading, facilitated the trades.
Whale movements like these can signal market sentiment but also carry risks, including potential liquidations in leveraged positions that could exacerbate price swings. Studies, such as a 2022 paper in the Journal of Financial Economics, have tied large trades to momentum shifts in cryptocurrency markets.
Lookonchain, which monitors “smart money” flows on blockchains, did not identify the investor. The firm highlighted the dangers of leveraged perpetuals in its updates.
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