A HyperUnit crypto whale’s total assets have dropped from around $10 billion to just $2 billion over the years, according to data from crypto intelligence website Arkham. A large player in digital currencies spread across 100 addresses, this high-profile trader has suffered a humbling experience over the years after several risky moves that resulted in major losses.
Arkham tweeted:
As a long-term Bitcoin holder since 2018, even a simple buy-and-hold strategy would have at least 6x its assets. However, the trader chose dangerous speculatory behavior over this tried-and-tested technique, and now their total crypto valuation has dropped 80%. At the peak of its play, the whale had over 100,000 BTC, valued at approximately $8 billion even today with the ongoing bear market.
Who is Behind this Particular Whale?
While exact details about this crypto whale are not known, on-chain analysts report that the account is operated by former BitForex CEO Garrett Jin. The now-defunct exchange gained early prominence before being accused of inflating trading volumes. Eventually, in a 2024 collapse, $57 million in user funds vanished, and the platform was flagged by regulators for fraud.
The whale reportedly was on a relative high when it made $200 million by shorting Bitcoin during the October 2025 price dump. The sudden price decrease was shady, and many analysts point to well-coordinated, leveraged shorting by Jane Street and other firms. It is not yet known whether Jin was involved in this particular scenario, but he did make a lot of money in the process.
However, buoyed by this success, the trader placed aggressive longs on the cryptocurrency’s future on Hyperliquid, but the October dump didn’t stop there, and the digital currency eventually hit as low as $60k, wiping over $13 billion in longs over the months, liquidating this whale in the process as well.
It also faced setbacks in Ethereum longs, losing roughly $250 million after a sharp ~10% drop in ETH toward $2,400 in late January. Their SOL longs experienced a similar fate.
Future Bets
As of May 3, 2026, Arkham data shows the entity’s remaining portfolio is worth around $2.05 billion. It is dominated by 548,487 ETH (worth $1.31 billion) and 9,346 BTC (worth $747 million), along with minor stablecoin and token holdings.
While the whale has lost more than $8 billion in this speculation-driven leveraged exercise, it still has substantial ETH and BTC reserves. That makes them worth following, and currently, the whale is making moves, notably a $1.6K transfer to the non-custodial swap service ChangeNOW. However, this is being attributed to housekeeping, sweeping dust balances, testing withdrawals, or consolidating remnants.
One X user pointed out:
