Ethereum ( ETH ) big dump triggered mass liquidations: retail investors suffered losses of tens of millions, while institutions bought the dip with hundreds of millions.

Ethereum ( ETH ) continues to decline during the day, leading the crypto assets market to a widespread fall, resulting in a total liquidation amount of up to 486 million USD across the network. This article provides a deep analysis of the leverage trading risks behind this ETH price pullback, revealing the cruelty of the market through real liquidation cases, and discussing the trend of institutional investors buying the dips, to provide investors with a comprehensive analysis of Ethereum market conditions and risk warnings.

Overview of Market Widespread Fall and Huge Liquidations

Ethereum ( ETH ) continues its decline this week, with an intraday drop of 1.54%, currently quoted at $4,166, having fallen 7.3% since the beginning of the week. This pullback occurs after its price reached a multi-year high, which is typical market behavior, but it comes at a heavy cost for traders betting on the rise. Coinglass data shows that the total liquidation amount across the network in the past 24 hours reached $486 million, involving 136,855 traders. Among them, ETH is the main asset causing the losses, with related liquidation amounts reaching $196.8 million, of which $155.1 million is from long position liquidations.

Harsh Case: Huge Profits Nearly Zeroed Out in Two Days

The blockchain analysis company Lookonchain disclosed several representative cases of getting liquidated, revealing the huge risks of high margin trading. A trader entered the market 4 months ago with only $125,000 in capital, and through precise Ether long strategies, continuously added positions across two accounts, ultimately increasing his holdings to 66,749 ETH, with his total equity once skyrocketing from $125,000 to an astonishing $29.6 million. Earlier this week, he closed all long positions, making a profit of $6.86 million. However, during the recent market crash, he entered the market again to long ETH, ultimately facing liquidation, losing $6.22 million, and his account net worth plummeted from a peak of over $43 million to just $771,000, nearly "returning to zero overnight."

Institutional Trends: Whales Buy the Dips, Conveying Long-term Confidence

In stark contrast to retail investors facing liquidation, institutional investors are viewing this decline as a good opportunity to Buy the Dips. Data shows that Bitmine Immersion, the world's largest publicly traded ETH holder, recently increased its holdings by 52,475 ETH, bringing its total holdings to 1,575,848 ETH, worth nearly $6.6 billion. Another institution, SharpLink, also purchased 143,593 ETH at an average price of $4,648 last week (worth $667 million), now holding a total of 740,760 ETH (worth $3.19 billion). These two institutions alone bought over 516,000 ETH (worth $2.22 billion) last week. Additionally, two wallets associated with institutions (0x50A5 and 0x9bdB) also received 9,044 ETH (approximately $38 million) from FalconX. This indicates that despite the prevailing panic selling in the market, the inflow of institutional funds shows a firm confidence in the long-term value of Ethereum.

Conclusion

The current market presents an extreme contrast: high-leverage retail traders are suffering heavy losses due to the violent fluctuations in ETH prices, with months of profits evaporating in just two days; meanwhile, strong institutional investors are calmly "taking over" and positioning themselves during the crash thanks to their financial advantages. This serves as a profound warning to investors that in the highly volatile crypto assets market, risk management is always the top priority, and blindly using high leverage is akin to gambling. For long-term investors, the firm buying by institutions may be a positive signal worth considering.