Hyperunit whale liquidates ETH, drains account to almost zero

The exit marks a sharp reversal for a wallet that had become closely watched after earlier high-conviction, high-leverage positioning in major crypto markets. In a post detailing the latest move, Arkham said the wallet sold out the full ETH exposure and described the outcome as a total wipeout, with the remaining balance effectively negligible.

The account had been associated with large directional ETH exposure in recent months, with Arkham previously describing the same entity as holding a long position worth more than $400 million at one point. That type of positioning typically concentrates risk in a single market view, and the resulting profit or loss can swing quickly when price moves against the position, particularly when leverage and funding costs are involved.

The “Hyperunit whale” label itself traces back to the October 10 market crash, when Arkham said the same trader made about $200 million during the sell-off that triggered a broad liquidation cascade across crypto derivatives. Arkham’s earlier characterization placed the wallet among a small set of accounts that were able to profit from the violent unwind, a period when liquidations accelerated as margin thresholds were breached and order books thinned.

The latest closure underscores how quickly performance can flip when a large account transitions from being positioned for downside to leaning heavily into upside exposure. In derivatives-heavy venues, profit and loss is marked continuously as prices move, while liquidation engines may reduce positions when collateral falls below maintenance requirements. An account can also reach an effective end state without a single “all at once” liquidation headline if it exits in pieces, realizes losses across fills, and ends with minimal residual collateral.

Arkham’s report did not frame the move as a transfer to a new address, instead describing it as a full exit that left the tracked account nearly empty. The same post linked the wallet to “Garrett Jin,” though Arkham’s public note did not provide additional attribution detail beyond that identification.

The episode arrives amid a market environment where leverage remains a core driver of short-term volatility. When a large position is built in a single asset, the risk is not only direction but also timing: funding rates, intraday liquidity gaps, and rapid moves through key levels can compress the window for managing exposure. The end result, in this case, was a tracked balance that Arkham said had fallen to $53 after realizing roughly $250 billion in losses on the ETH trade.