Tens of millions in Nasdaq short whale battle setup, gold long positions ahead of the fight, dual-direction profits amid risk aversion sentiment

On March 2nd, according to Coinbob’s popular address monitoring, the whale starting with 0x069 currently holds two positions: a 10x leveraged short on Nasdaq 100 (XYZ100) with a position size of $9.81 million at an average price of $25,020; and a 5x leveraged long on gold (GOLD) with a position size of $5.5 million at an average price of $4,861, totaling a position size of $15.3 million. On December 15, 2025, this whale initially positioned itself with a nearly $10 million short on Nasdaq 100, likely betting that the high valuation at the end of the US rate hike cycle was overdone. It had previously experienced some unrealized losses. Over two months later, on February 6th, the first round of US-Iran talks in Muscat began. The address entered the market during expectations of peace and as gold prices fell below $4,900 per ounce. This positioning, which anticipated the escalation of the situation by about 20 days, was made ahead of the subsequent escalation. On February 28th, missiles struck. News of a joint US-Israel airstrike caused market risk aversion to surge, and both positions simultaneously took profits: the Nasdaq 100 short turned profitable, and the gold long temporarily increased unrealized gains to $500,000, with a return rate of 34%. The current holdings have shifted from a one-sided short position on the US stock market to a typical macro risk hedging strategy. However, if the war returns to peace, there is a high probability that the positions will suffer losses on both sides.