Lightning whale strikes again: adjusting positions to go long on BTC against ETH exchange rate, earning over a million in three days

This so-called “Lightning Reversal” whale (0x50b3…) is busy again. On January 23, this high-frequency trader continuously adjusted their positions within a short period. After closing ETH long positions for profit, they immediately shifted to adjusting short positions and increased their BTC long positions. According to the latest monitoring data, this operation may be related to going long on the BTC/ETH exchange rate.

Details of Position Adjustments

Based on Hyperinsight monitoring, this whale’s rebalancing involved two core actions:

Cutting losses and flattening ETH short positions

The address first reduced 1912.15 ETH shorts (worth approximately $5.52 million), then increased ETH shorts by 1990.34 ETH (worth about $5.80 million). This buy-then-sell approach reflects the whale’s strategy of “cutting losses + averaging in” during adjustments.

After the adjustments, the total ETH short position is valued at about $23.56 million, currently at a floating loss of approximately $38,100.

Significantly increasing BTC long positions

At the same time, the address significantly flattened some BTC longs, adding 142.57 BTC longs worth about $12.86 million. After the operation, its BTC long position increased to approximately $66.83 million, with the average price slightly lowered to $89,557.70, and a current floating loss of about $160,600.

Shift in Trading Logic

From related information, the whale’s operations over the past three days form a clear trading chain:

January 21: Closed ETH shorts for a profit of $1.312 million, increased BTC longs

January 22: Closed ETH longs for a profit of $216,800

January 23: Adjusted ETH shorts while continuing to increase BTC longs

The underlying logic behind these series of actions may be: the whale is no longer purely bearish on ETH but is instead bullish on the BTC/ETH exchange rate. In other words, this address might believe that in the near future, BTC will outperform ETH.

Characteristics of the Whale’s Trading

The reason this address is called “Lightning Reversal” is due to its extremely rapid long-short switching. Closing positions and immediately opening large positions in the opposite direction is its norm. This rebalancing operation again demonstrates its high-frequency and flexible trading style.

From the profit data, between January 21-23, this whale has realized over $1.5 million in profits through multiple position closures. This quick position switching and timely take-profit and stop-loss capabilities are key to its sustained profitability.

Market Implications

Such large traders’ position adjustments often reflect market participants’ expectations for future trends. The “Lightning Reversal” from short ETH to long BTC/ETH exchange rate suggests that this savvy trader may be expecting BTC to outperform ETH in the short term.

However, it should be noted that although the current BTC and ETH positions of this address are both at floating losses, this does not prevent further position increases. This contrarian behavior of adding to positions may either indicate strong confidence in the upcoming market or be part of its routine flattening strategy.

Summary

The latest operations of the “Lightning Reversal” whale show that this address is shifting from purely short positions to going long on the BTC/ETH exchange rate. The continuous closing and rebalancing over three days have already brought in profits exceeding $1.5 million. The position changes of such high-frequency traders often preempt market sentiment, making their subsequent movements worth monitoring.