The $5.7 million unrealized loss is still adding to the position. What is this big whale betting on?

“Lightning Counterattack” whale completed a radical shift in stance within just 3 days. From stopping out of a BTC short position on January 5th to currently holding an unrealized loss of $5.7 million and continuing to add positions, this on-chain major account with address 0x50b30 is demonstrating what it means to “believe in the rebound” with real capital. According to on-chain monitoring data, the market signals behind this operation warrant in-depth analysis.

Radical Three-Day Turnaround

This whale’s trading pace is very fast. After stopping out of a BTC short on January 5th, it immediately turned bullish, using 20x and 14x leverage to go long on BTC and ETH respectively. By the morning of January 8th, it had reduced some ETH short positions, incurring a loss of $578,000, but overall maintaining a strong long posture.

Key detail: Why keep adding positions

Data shows that this whale continued increasing its holdings from January 6 to January 7, with BTC rising from 1317.55 to 1569.29 BTC, and ETH from 13678.69 to 15677.02 ETH. Even with an unrealized loss of $2.07 million, it did not cut losses but added more.

By January 8, although it reduced some ETH (from 15677.02 to 11757.76 ETH), this appears to be an active adjustment of the position structure rather than forced stop-loss. The realized loss from reducing ETH is only $578,000, but the total unrealized loss has reached $5.7 million, indicating larger unrealized losses on remaining positions.

Market Signals Under High Leverage

The aggressiveness of this operation is noteworthy. Going long 1569.29 BTC with 20x leverage means that a price drop of about 5% could trigger liquidation. Similarly, 14x leverage on ETH carries comparable risk levels.

What does this operation indicate

• Market sentiment shift: From bearish to bullish, suggesting this whale believes the decline has been sufficient and a rebound is imminent
• Strong confidence in mainstream coins: Holding large positions in both BTC and ETH indicates not betting on a single coin but on the overall market direction
• Risk tolerance: Maintaining a $5.7 million unrealized loss while holding on shows substantial capital reserves and psychological resilience, not typical retail behavior
• Possible arbitrage logic: High-leverage longs might be hedging other positions or engaging in cross-term arbitrage

Comparison with Other Whales

According to latest reports, other whales are also engaged in intense long-short battles. Among the bulls, besides “Lightning Counterattack,” there is “Bankrupt Whale” James Wynn, who is also increasing BTC and PEPE long positions, currently with an unrealized profit of $820,000. On the short side, some whales have increased short positions to $225.8 million, with unrealized losses exceeding $6 million.

This scenario of both sides increasing positions reflects market uncertainty, but based on the bulls’ unrealized gains and bears’ unrealized losses, recent price trends seem to favor the bulls.

Summary

The aggressive actions of the “Lightning Counterattack” whale are a noteworthy market signal. Despite an unrealized loss of $5.7 million, this whale continues to add positions to express confidence in a rebound. This approach indicates that market bullish sentiment is gradually recovering, especially regarding the two main cryptocurrencies, BTC and ETH.

However, it’s important to recognize that whale trading logic differs from that of ordinary investors. They can withstand much larger fluctuations and losses. High leverage trading poses significant risks for retail traders. The key is to learn from their mindset—adding to positions amid unrealized losses signals something different from blindly following the trend. Currently, ETH is around $3,150, down 3.21% in 24 hours but up 6.07% over 7 days, and this short-term volatility might be an opportunity that whales are exploiting.