An anonymous crypto trader opened a short position on 47,600 Ethereum worth roughly $100.72 million on Monday, May 25. The trade was placed just as Vitalik Buterin publicly pledged that the Ethereum Foundation would cut its ETH sales. According to Hypurrscan data, wallet "0x50b..." deployed 23x cross-margin with an entry price of $2,094.92.
ETH was trading around $2,132 at the time of writing, already above the whale's entry. The unrealized loss on the position approached $1 million, with the liquidation price sitting near $2,150. Every uptick in ETH tightens the margin for this trade.
23x cross-margin and a narrow path to liquidation
The position runs through Hyperliquid, a decentralized derivatives exchange. Cross-margin mode means losses draw from the entire account balance, not just the collateral reserved for this specific trade. If the asset moves sharply higher, the total loss can exceed what was calculated for this single position.
Beyond the ~$994,000 unrealized loss, the trader had already paid around $2,145 in funding fees to keep the short open. ETH recovered from a weekend low near $2,000, and if that recovery continues, the whale faces liquidation with almost no buffer remaining.
A $100 million short at 23x cross-margin is a deliberate bet against ETH at a moment when global risk appetite is improving due to early signs of easing US-Iran tensions.
EF pledges to sell less ETH after sustained criticism
Vitalik Buterin published a detailed post on X on Sunday, May 24, defending the Ethereum Foundation's direction after a string of researcher departures. The foundation, in Buterin's words, is choosing "longevity over breadth" and will not act as Ethereum's central command structure.
He said EF will cut spending, narrow its mission and sell less ETH. The statement responds to years of criticism that large, sustained ETH sales weigh on the token's price during weak market conditions and erode holder confidence.
The retained volume shows EF retains meaningful market influence. Even partial sales of thousands of ETH are felt in a market where liquidity runs thinner than in Bitcoin.
Who has been cutting ETH in 2026 and by how much
The whale's trade fits a broader pattern among major ETH holders during 2026. Weak price action and a multi-year lag against Bitcoin pushed several institutional players to trim or exit their Ethereum positions.
Harvard Management Company, the Harvard University endowment, exited its $87 million Ethereum ETF position after just one quarter. Goldman Sachs cut ETH ETF holdings by roughly 70%, leaving about $114 million invested. Spot Ethereum ETFs have bled capital: more than $295 million in net outflows in May 2026 and over $945 million for the year so far.
Bankless co-founder David Hoffman announced he had sold all his personal ETH holdings. A symbolic step from someone who spent years as one of Ethereum's most vocal public advocates.
Why some analysts remain long on Ethereum
Analyst Tanaka and others maintain a long-term bullish case for ETH despite the outflows and selling pressure. Their arguments rest on real-usage data for the network.
- DeFi. Around $43 billion is locked in Ethereum-based protocols, according to Token Terminal data.
- More than $165 billion in stablecoins circulates within the Ethereum network and its L2 layers.
- Roughly 55% of tokenized assets tracked across public blockchains sit on Ethereum or compatible layers.
These on-chain metrics are hard for competing networks to replicate in the short term. But they do not insulate ETH from speculative pressure in the $2,000-2,150 trading range where the token currently sits.
Price risk for the whale and the cascade of forced liquidations
The anonymous trader's position sits under real pressure. If ETH holds above $2,150, the short moves into forced liquidation territory. The liquidation mechanism can itself accelerate the price move upward if similar shorts are clustered in the $2,150-2,200 zone.
Improving sentiment from easing US-Iran tensions pushed BTC and ETH higher on Monday. If that carries through, the whale faces liquidation or a forced exit with a realized loss. Buterin's pledge to sell less ETH removes one bearish argument for the short, though the market has not yet reacted to that signal with a sharp rally.
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