A crypto whale linked by on-chain analysts to former BitForex executive Garrett Jin has sold approximately $87.5 million of Ethereum and used the proceeds to reinforce a deeply underwater Zcash short position, turning what initially looked like a major ETH transfer into a much more consequential derivatives trade.
On-chain analyst EmberCN reported on Sept. 18 that the wallet cluster sold all 35,000 ETH it had withdrawn from Binance the previous night, executing the sale at roughly $2,500 per ETH.
The ETH had initially attracted attention when it moved from Binance into the trader’s Hyperliquid account. At the time, EmberCN questioned whether the assets would be sold to provide additional collateral for the trader’s ZEC short.
That is effectively what happened next.
According to EmberCN’s subsequent monitoring, proceeds from the approximately $87.5 million ETH sale were used to increase margin supporting the ZEC position. The additional collateral reportedly moved the short’s estimated liquidation price from about $2,631 to approximately $4,738.
The transaction did not eliminate the loss. It instead gave the trader considerably more room for ZEC to rise before forced liquidation becomes a threat.
Independent Hyperliquid tracking shows the wallet still holding roughly 37,760 ZEC short, with an average entry price near $665.85. With ZEC trading around the $1,500 area on Friday, the position was worth approximately $55 million to $57 million and was carrying an unrealized loss of around $30 million, depending on the market price at the time of measurement.
The position has been building for months. Earlier tracking showed the wallet shorting ZEC when prices were around the $400 range before repeatedly increasing exposure as the token moved higher. On Sept. 17 alone, EmberCN reported that the trader added another 5,000 ZEC to the short at approximately $1,252.50.
That lifted the position to approximately 37,760 ZEC and pushed the average short entry toward $665.80.
The scale is significant, but it is no longer unusual for Hyperliquid short positions to reach institutional-sized notional values. Abraxas Capital’s publicly tracked short book on the platform recently exceeded $980 million, including hundreds of millions of dollars of exposure against ETH and BTC.
What makes the latest ZEC trade different is the apparent concentration. Rather than running an obviously diversified or market-neutral portfolio, the tracked wallet now appears heavily dependent on one large ZEC short whose losses have expanded as the token has rallied.
ZEC has moved from roughly $470 in mid-August to around $1,500 by Sept. 18, an increase of more than 200%. The latest advance has been accompanied by heavy derivatives activity and short liquidations as traders positioned against the rally have been forced to reduce exposure.
EmberCN separately reported that another trader who opened an approximately $10.1 million leveraged ZEC short around $1,245 was completely liquidated after the cryptocurrency continued climbing above $1,390.
The wallet associated with Jin has avoided that outcome by repeatedly adding capital.
The latest maneuver follows a pattern increasingly visible through large on-chain capital movements, where traders can shift tens of millions of dollars between assets and venues while their positions remain publicly observable.
Hyperliquid’s transparency makes that particularly pronounced. Positions, collateral movements, entry prices and unrealized profits or losses can often be followed directly, giving outside observers visibility that would normally be unavailable when comparable derivatives positions are held entirely inside centralized exchanges.
The platform is already supporting substantial institutional-scale activity on Hyperliquid, with prime brokers and large trading firms increasingly appearing around its ecosystem.
That transparency does not, however, establish who ultimately controls a wallet.
EmberCN describes the address as associated with Garrett Jin, but that attribution should be treated cautiously. Previous attempts by on-chain researchers to connect major Hyperliquid whale activity with Jin generated disagreement among analysts, with critics arguing that some of the links relied on indirect wallet relationships rather than definitive proof of ownership.
The important facts in the latest development therefore concern the visible trading activity: 35,000 ETH moved from Binance, the ETH was subsequently sold, and substantially more collateral was placed behind an already heavily losing ZEC short.
The Trader Has Bought Time, Not Fixed the Trade
The difference between improving a position and defending one matters here.
Selling $87.5 million of ETH and adding margin does not make the ZEC short more profitable. It does not lower the approximately $665.85 average entry price, and it does not erase the roughly $30 million unrealized loss.
It changes one thing that matters enormously: survival.
Before the additional collateral, a liquidation level around $2,631 left the trader facing a serious problem if ZEC’s extraordinary rally continued. Raising that threshold toward $4,738 dramatically increases the distance between the market and forced liquidation.
In effect, the whale has converted ETH into staying power.
That can be rational if the underlying ZEC thesis is ultimately correct. A trader forced out at $2,600 gets no benefit if ZEC subsequently collapses to $500. A trader with enough margin to survive the squeeze potentially does.
But that logic also creates one of the oldest traps in leveraged trading: defending a losing position can turn a defined trade into a capital commitment that keeps growing simply because closing it has become psychologically or financially difficult.
The wallet has already followed that pattern several times. As ZEC rose, the trader increased the short. As the unrealized loss expanded, more collateral was added. Now an entire 35,000 ETH position has apparently been sold to give the ZEC trade additional breathing room.
This is why headline notional size is only one part of understanding perpetual leverage and funding. Margin structure, liquidation thresholds and the trader’s capacity to keep posting collateral can matter just as much as whether the position is currently winning or losing.
The episode also highlights the unusual visibility created by Hyperliquid perpetuals. A comparable trade conducted through an opaque institutional derivatives account might reveal almost nothing until it was closed. Here, observers can watch the trader’s defense strategy develop almost transaction by transaction.
That visibility can itself affect market psychology. Once traders know that a large short exists, the liquidation level becomes a reference point. Some market participants begin watching whether price can move toward it, while others try to determine whether additional collateral will arrive first.
Moving the estimated liquidation price from roughly $2,631 to $4,738 substantially changes that dynamic. At ZEC around $1,500, immediate liquidation pressure has been pushed much further away.
But the economic risk has not disappeared.
The trader has exchanged a highly liquid ETH position for collateral defending an asset that has already risen more than 200% in roughly a month. If ZEC reverses sharply, the decision could eventually look disciplined. If the rally continues, the larger margin buffer simply gives the position more capital to lose before liquidation becomes unavoidable.
It is another example of how on-chain trading is making sophisticated portfolio decisions increasingly visible in real time.
The next important transaction is therefore unlikely to be another small adjustment to the short.
It is whether the wallet finally reduces ZEC exposure, adds still more collateral, or continues defending the position if ZEC pushes materially higher.
The $87.5 million ETH sale has made liquidation much less immediate.
It has also made the trader’s commitment to the ZEC short much harder to ignore.
Michael Lebowitz is a financial markets analyst and digital finance writer specializing in cryptocurrencies, blockchain ecosystems, prediction markets, and emerging fintech platforms. He began his career as a forex and equities trader, developing a deep understanding of market dynamics, risk cycles, and capital flows across traditional financial markets.
In 2013, Michael transitioned his focus to cryptocurrencies, recognizing early the structural similarities—and critical differences—between legacy markets and blockchain-based financial systems. Since then, his work has concentrated on crypto-native market behavior, including memecoin cycles, on-chain activity, liquidity mechanics, and the role of prediction markets in pricing political, economic, and technological outcomes.
Alongside digital assets, Michael continues to follow developments in online trading and financial technology, particularly where traditional market infrastructure intersects with decentralized systems. His analysis emphasizes incentive design, trader psychology, and market structure rather than short-term price action, helping readers better understand how speculative narratives form, evolve, and unwind in fast-moving crypto markets.