As Bitcoin continues its downward spiral, the entire crypto market is in a bloodbath. Against this backdrop, according to on-chain analyst Ember, a whale wallet address completed a complete sell-off in the past four days, selling all of its holdings of 96,585 Ether (ETH) and 334,000 Solana (SOL), resulting in a total loss of $141 million.
ETH and SOL Trading Details: Losses Exceed 40%
According to on-chain data, the whale's transaction history is as follows:
Regarding the ETH portion, the address bought in July 2025 at an average price of $3,363 and sold approximately 96,585 ETH in early February at an average price of $2,222, for a total value of approximately $214 million, resulting in a loss of $110 million.
In the SOL portion, the address bought approximately 334,000 tokens in October 2025 at an average price of $186 and sold them in early February at an average price of $94, for a total value of approximately $31.51 million, resulting in a loss of $30.78 million.
After repaying the on-chain loan, the wallet's final balance was only 58.34 million USDC, representing a total loss of approximately 42% compared to the initial investment. As of press time, ETH is currently trading at $2,136 and SOL at $91.3.
Trend Research initiates deleveraging and risk aversion.
Meanwhile, on-chain data also shows that Trend Research, under Yi Lihua, is carrying out a large-scale asset transfer, having recently deposited approximately 188,600 ETH into Binance, with a total value of $426 million, in order to sell assets to repay huge loans on DeFi protocols.
According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Trend Research transferred 25,000 ETH to Binance in two transactions on February 5th, worth approximately $53.24 million. To date, the firm has transferred a total of 188,588 ETH, with a total value of approximately $420 million.
Trend Research, an institution under LD Capital and led by Yi Lihua, is speculated to have its core purpose in this large-scale transfer as selling assets to repay loans in order to cope with interest pressure and market volatility risks.
Liquidation pressure under high leverage
Trend Research's asset allocation exhibits high leverage. According to reports, the firm pledged over $1.33 billion in WETH on Aave V3 and borrowed approximately $939 million in stablecoins. Data shows that if the ETH price falls to the $1,781-$1,862 range, this position faces the risk of forced liquidation, a price level representing only about 10% to 15% of the then-current market price.
By selling ETH and repaying Aave loans, Trend Research has reduced its leverage ratio from 2.4x to 2.2x. This action reflects that even large institutions must prioritize ensuring liquidity safety rather than blindly maintaining high leverage positions.
This also serves as a reminder of the importance of strict stop-loss mechanisms and risk management in the cryptocurrency market. When investors with hundreds of millions of dollars choose to proactively cut their losses and exit the market, for retail investors with smaller capital, carefully assessing their risk tolerance and setting stop-loss points may be more crucial than predicting market trends.
