On the evening of October 10, 2025, the crypto market experienced a "Black Friday"-style crash. The price of bitcoin briefly fell below $105,000, with single-day liquidations surpassing $19 billion, setting a record for the largest liquidation in crypto history. Amid this market catastrophe, the actions of a mysterious whale drew widespread attention—he sold over $4.23 billion worth of bitcoin and rotated his position into ethereum. As on-chain detectives dug deeper, clues about the identity behind this massive transaction pointed to a Chinese individual named Garrett Jin.
01 Market Crash: A "Perfect Storm" of Leverage Liquidation
From October 10 to 11, the crypto market underwent the "2025 Leverage Reset" Black Friday. The trigger for this crash was a post by U.S. President Trump on social media, announcing a 100% tariff on Chinese goods, which sparked panic selling of global risk assets. The price of bitcoin dropped from a high of over $126,000 to below $110,000, a single-day decline of 13.5%, with the total crypto market capitalization evaporating by nearly $80 billion.
The deeper reason for the market collapse was excessive leverage. Chain liquidations in cross-margin accounts triggered a "linked chain" effect: one forced liquidation led to the sale of collateral, further depressing prices and causing more liquidations. Meanwhile, platforms such as Binance experienced system outages during the extreme volatility, with order book lags and data display anomalies, exacerbating user losses.
02 Whale Operations: Precise Shorting and Position Rotation
On-chain analyst Eye's investigation showed that a HyperLiquid whale holding over 100,000 BTC executed a series of precise operations before and after the crash.
Spot Rotation: Between August and September, this whale sold over 35,000 BTC (worth $4.23 billion) via the Hyperliquid/Hyperunit platform, exchanged them for 570,000 ETH, and staked all of it into the Beacon deposit contract.
Massive Shorting: On October 7, the whale deposited 3,000 BTC and opened a bitcoin short position, then expanded the short to $735 million during the crash, while also holding a $353 million ETH short.
Staggering Profits: It is estimated that his short positions earned about $190 to $200 million within 24 hours.
03 Identity Emerges: From ENS Domain to Chinese Background
The exposure of the whale's identity began with tracking on-chain fund flows. Eye discovered that the whale address was associated with the ENS domain "ereignis.eth," which also owns another ENS name "garrettjin.eth," directly pointing to X platform user @GarrettBullish—namely, Garrett Jin.
Funding Link: The whale address once transferred $40,000 USDT to Garrett Jin via an intermediary wallet, forming an indirect connection.
Sensitive Reaction: After the investigation was made public, Garrett Jin quickly deleted the @XHash_com information from his social media bio and changed his Telegram privacy settings, sparking further speculation.
04 Background Revealed: From Traditional Finance to Troubled Exchanges
Garrett Jin's resume combines a complex background in both traditional finance and the crypto industry:
Early Experience: Graduated from Boston University with a degree in Economics in 2008, and worked at China Construction Bank.
Crypto Career: Joined Huobi (HTX) in 2014 as Operations Director, and served as CEO of BitForex from 2017 to 2020.
Controversial History: After his departure, BitForex became embroiled in a fake trading volume scandal, and in 2024 closed after $57 million was stolen from its hot wallet. The Hong Kong SFC had previously issued a fraud warning against it.
Entrepreneurial Projects: In 2020, he founded WaveLabs VC, launching projects such as TanglePay and XHash. XHash, as a non-custodial ethereum staking platform, has been questioned for possibly integrating suspicious funds.
05 Response and Doubts: A Rashomon Dispute
In response to the allegations, Garrett Jin posted a series of replies on the X platform on October 13:
Denying Insider Trading: "I have no relationship with the Trump family or Donald Trump Jr.—this is not insider trading."
Funds Ownership Defense: "These funds belong to my clients; we run nodes for them and provide research insights."
Promise of Further Explanation: He said he would share "bearish insights, views on the 1011 event, and suggestions for industry improvement."
However, the community remains skeptical of his explanations:
CZ's Attention: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao reposted the investigation and said, "Hope someone can cross-verify," further fueling the incident.
ZachXBT's Doubts: The well-known on-chain detective pointed out that the direct fund transfer between Garrett Jin and the whale was only $40,000 USDT, considering the evidence insufficient and possibly just a friendship.
Industry Opinion Split: Analyst Quinten François questioned the obvious ENS domain link: "If this involved manipulation, why use an .eth name pointing to yourself?"
06 Unsolved Mystery: The Potential Connection Between the Whale and Garrett Jin
Although Garrett Jin denies controlling the whale account, the following clues remain suspicious:
Funding Pattern: The whale's main funds originated from bitcoin withdrawn years ago from HTX, OKX, and other exchanges, matching the timeline of Garrett Jin's tenure at Huobi and the disappearance of BitForex funds.
Ongoing Holdings: The related address still holds 46,295 BTC, worth about $5.19 billion.
Platform Connection: XHash, founded by Garrett Jin as a staking platform, is suspected of possibly being used to aggregate fund flows.
As of press time, Garrett Jin's promised explanation has not yet been fully disclosed. The differing views of on-chain analysts Eye and ZachXBT make the truth even more elusive.
