A newly created whale wallet has executed a high-stakes bet on Ethereum, opening a $33 million long position with 20x leverage on the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange. The wallet, funded with $12.88 million in USDC, purchased 16,270 ETH at prices between $2,020 and $2,040. The trade resulted in over $1 million in unrealized losses shortly after entry, drawing significant market attention to its potential impact on short-term price movements.
This aggressive move coincides with continued institutional accumulation. BitMine, an Ethereum treasury entity, purchased an additional 40,000 ETH (worth $83.4 million) in a single day, adding to its massive holdings of 4.32 million ETH valued at over $9.14 billion. Despite facing approximately $8 billion in unrealized losses, BitMine's long-term strategy remains unchanged, with a goal to own 5% of Ethereum's circulating supply.
Amid this activity, prominent Chinese billionaire Bitcoin miner Jiang Zhuoer shared a bullish long-term outlook for Ethereum. He argued that U.S. institutional capital's understanding of Ethereum is still in its early stages, comparable to the broader crypto market in 2014-2015. Zhuoer, who claims never to have sold his ETH holdings, predicts Ethereum's second major surge against Bitcoin will begin in the 2026-2027 period. He believes this will be driven by the migration of traditional financial assets to blockchain infrastructure, echoing the 2016-2017 ICO boom that fueled Ethereum's first major rally.
Ethereum's price action shows signs of recovery, having broken above key resistance at $2,000 and reaching as high as $2,168. It is currently consolidating above $2,050. Institutional sentiment remains strong, with BlackRock labeling Ethereum the "toll road" for tokenization in its 2026 outlook, noting it powers over half of the $21 billion in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization value.
