Legend turns into tragedy? "Prophet Whale" clears Ethereum long positions, suffers a loss of $250 million, with only $53 remaining in the account

Last October, the “Prophet Whale,” who made a name for himself by accurately shorting Bitcoin and Ethereum and raking in $200 million, suffered a devastating defeat in recent bullish bets, nearly losing everything. According to on-chain data platform Arkham, as the price of Ethereum plummeted, this “Prophet Whale” was forced to liquidate all of his long ETH positions on Hyperliquid, realizing a loss of approximately $250 million. His account balance now stands at only $53, wiping out months of accumulated paper profits in an instant.

HYPERLIQUIDATED: HYPERUNIT WHALE [GARRETT JIN]

The Hyperunit whale, linked to Garrett Jin, has just sold HIS ENTIRE ETH POSITION, realizing a COMPLETE loss of $250 MILLION.

He has $53 left in his Hyperliquid account. pic.twitter.com/0qZBOoeqoI

— Arkham (@arkham) January 31, 2026

The “Prophet Whale” suffered this heavy loss just as Ethereum experienced a sharp decline. According to CoinGecko market data, Ethereum is currently trading around $2,246, down 21.5% over the past week. Analysts had issued warnings as early as last week, indicating that this whale’s positions were at risk. As the price continued to fall in January, his unrealized losses expanded to $130 million. Ultimately, amid market panic selling, he was forced to cut losses and exit his positions. The “Prophet Whale” first attracted market attention in October last year, just minutes before U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 100% tariff increase on Chinese goods. He established short positions on Bitcoin and Ethereum worth over $1 billion. Following the tariff announcement, the market crashed, with total liquidation amounts exceeding $18 billion, while he reaped approximately $200 million in profits. What’s noteworthy is that the last time he added to these short positions was exactly one minute before Trump’s tweet was announced, leading outsiders to suspect that this major player might have “insider information.” Even more controversial, on-chain analyst Eye further investigated and found that the whale’s wallet has an indirect connection to Garrett Jin, co-founder of the now-defunct exchange BitForex. Although Jin later clarified that “the funds are not mine, they belong to clients,” he admitted to knowing the trader behind the positions. This ambiguous relationship has further fueled market speculation about the whale’s movements. After making a big profit in October last year, the whale did not stop but instead shifted to long positions. By mid-January this year, he had built up Ethereum longs worth as much as $730 million on Hyperliquid. Combined with positions in Solana (SOL) and Bitcoin, his total exposure once exceeded $900 million. However, the market’s sharp decline ultimately forced the “Prophet Whale” to liquidate all his positions.