Author：CoinDesk
An ether (ETH) bull was caught leaning hard into the upside this week as the cryptocurrency tanked, turning the whale bet into a multi-million dollar horror story.
That bull is Trend Research, a trading firm headed by Liquid Capital founder Jack Yi. The firm spent recent months building a bullish (long) bet worth $2 billion on ether by borrowing stablecoins from DeFi giant Aave, which were reportedly collateralized by ether.
The position blew up this week, leaving the firm with a $686 million loss, according to Arkham.
The blow up underscores the crypto market's unchanged reality: Volatility can still make or break traders in a single week. It also shows how traders keep chasing risky leveraged loop plays – borrowing stablecoins against ETH collateral – despite these bets exploding spectacularly every downtrend.
Trend Research's multi-million dollar loss. (Arkham)
How it went down
The team was convinced of ether's long-term potential and expected a quick rebound from its October drop below $4,000.
But that never materialized – ether kept sliding, endangering their "looped ether" long position. As prices fell, the stablecoin collateral backing the leveraged bet shrank, while the fixed debt loomed large in classic leveraged fashion.
The final blow came this month as ether started falling rapidly with bitcoin (BTC) and on Feb. 4 prices tanked to $1,750, the weakest level since April 2025. Trend Research responded by liquidating over 300,000 ether, according to data source Bubble Maps.
"Trend Research started sending large amounts of ETH to Binance to repay debt on AAVE In total, this cluster moved 332k ETH worth $700M to Binance over 5 days," Bubble Maps said on X. The firm now holds just 1.463 ETH.
Jack Yi described these sales as a risk-control measure.
"As multi-heads in this round, we remain optimistic about the performance of the new bull market: ETH reaching over $10,000, BTC exceeding $200,000 USD. We're just making some adjustments to control risk, with no change in our expectations for the future mega bull market," Yi said in a post on X.
He added that now is the best time to buy tokens, calling volatility as the biggest feature of the crypto circle. "Historically, countless bulls have been shaken off by this volatility, but often what follows is a doubled rebound," he noted.
