$11B Bitcoin whale sells $330M ETH, opens massive $748M longs in top cryptos

The $11 billion Bitcoin whale who correctly predicted the $19 billion October market crash is betting on the price appreciation of the top cryptocurrencies, signaling a potential market recovery.

After cashing out $330 million in Ether , the whale opened three leveraged long positions worth a cumulative $748 million, betting on price increases of Bitcoin, Ether and Solana.

The largest is an ETH long position worth $598 million, opened at $3,147, which faces liquidation if Ether’s price falls below $2,143, according to blockchain data platform Lookonchain’s Tuesday X post.

Based on their recent transaction patterns, the whale is positioning for a short-term rally in the three leading cryptocurrencies while continuing to run leveraged positions despite facing about $49 million in unrealized losses.

Source: Lookonchain

The $11 billion Bitcoin whale emerged in August and rotated around $5 billion worth of BTC into ETH, briefly surpassing the second-largest corporate treasury firm, Sharplink, in terms of total ETH holdings, Cointelegraph reported on Sept. 1.

The Bitcoin whale started rotating funds into Ether on Aug. 21 by selling $2.59 billion of BTC for a $2.2 billion spot ETH and a $577 million Ether perpetual long position, inspiring nine “massive” whale addresses to acquire a cumulative $456 million worth of ETH within a day.

Whales increase ETH buying, but smart money traders are still short for $122 million

Other crypto whales have also been increasing their spot Ether acquisitions, signaling more confidence from large investors, a key cohort for driving price momentum.

Crypto whales increased their Ether acquisition rate by 1.6-fold during the past week, amassing $7.43 million spot ETH across 19 wallets, according to crypto intelligence platform Nansen.

ETH/USD, one-day chart, Token God Mode. Source: nansen.ai

Still, the industry’s most successful traders by returns, tracked as “smart money” traders on Nansen, continue betting on Ether’s price decline.

Smart money traders were net short on Ether for a cumulative $121 million, with $6.5 million in long positions added during the past 24 hours, according to Nansen.

Smart money traders top perpetual futures positions on Hyperliquid. Source: Nansen

Smart money traders were also net short on Bitcoin for a cumulative $192 million and on Solana for $74 million.