BitcoinMarkets
|4 min Read$1B liquidated in one hour as crypto whales exit with precision
Maya Chen
Senior Analyst
Published
Jan 16, 2026
The market collapsed in an instant. In just one hour, more than 1.03 billion in positions were liquidated. Bitcoin broke through the critical 11,500 level and slid toward 11,280. Ethereum touched the edge of 4,000 before bouncing to 4,190. Solana fell to 214 before a weak recovery.
Only days earlier, euphoria dominated. ASTER surged 60 times after launch. AVNT tripled in less than a week. PerpDEX names looked alive again. The reversal shocked everyone. No clear trigger appeared on the surface. But the smart money was already moving.
Macro backdrop looks stable, but momentum shifts
The Federal Reserve cut rates by 25 basis points last week. Markets barely reacted. No rally, no collapse. Traders had already priced it in. The focus shifted to how many more cuts could come and whether stronger easing signals would follow.
Outside shocks were absent. Conditions looked calm. Yet beneath that calm, cracks began to show.
Liquidity shows stress around Ethereum
ETF flows stayed steady. Bitcoin even recorded four straight weeks of net inflows. Sentiment was not fully broken.
Ethereum was the weak point. More than 2.357 million ETH, close to $10 billion, piled up in the exit queue for unstaking. These coins might not all hit exchanges, but the sheer size created pressure. No strong buyers stepped up to absorb it.
Whales make “insider-level” exits
Some players did not wait to see what happened next. They acted.
On the morning of Sept. 22, the address tied to Trend Research pulled 16,800 ETH from Aave and sent it to Binance. Value: 72.88 million. This wallet once held 152,000 ETH with a cost basis of 2,869. It is now almost entirely cashed out.
The same group moved 670 million NEIROETH to Gate and Bybit this month. That accounted for 67 percent of supply. Since their first transfer, the token dropped 60 percent.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes also sold. On Sept. 21, he unloaded 96,600 HYPE tokens for about 5.1 million. Three weeks earlier, he had said HYPE could rise 126 times in the coming years. He joked he needed the cash for a Ferrari deposit. Later, he gave the real reason. HYPE faces a massive unlock. Starting Nov. 29, 237.8 million tokens will hit the market over two years. That is 11.9 billion in supply at current prices. Only 17 percent could be absorbed by current buybacks. The rest, $410 million a month, could crush demand.
Long-term vision versus short-term reality
Big institutions are still circling. Jefferies told clients crypto today looks like the internet in 1996. The message: ignore daily swings and focus on the disruption blockchain will bring. Some funds are entering through ETFs and digital asset treasury firms.
Others urge caution. Citi analysts see gold as the safer short-term bet. They expect cyclical weakness in U.S. jobs and doubts over Fed independence to keep driving the gold rally. Their three-month target stands at $3,800 per ounce.
Arthur Hayes remains bold. He claims that once the U.S. Treasury fills its general account with $850 billion, crypto will flip into a “only up” mode. Not everyone agrees. Bitwise’s André Dragosch calls the link between net liquidity and Bitcoin loose at best.
The lesson is clear. The market punishes hesitation. The whales already made their moves. The rest must decide whether to follow the survivors or wait for the next storm.
Disclaimer: This document is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed in this document are not, and should not be taken as, investment advice or recommendations. Recipients should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance, which are not considered here, before investing. This document is not an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned.