Two of the largest Ethereum (ETH) holders on-chain sold a combined $371 million in tokens over 48 hours to repay loans on Aave (AAVE), the leading decentralized lending protocol, as the platform processed more than $140 million in automated liquidations across multiple networks.
What Happened: Major Whales Reduce Leverage
The whale known as BitcoinOG deposited 121,185 ETH worth $292 million into Binance over two days, according to data from Arkham Intelligence cited by Lookonchain. From those proceeds, the entity withdrew $92.5 million in stablecoins to pay down debt on Aave.
BitcoinOG still holds 30,661 Bitcoin (BTC) valued at roughly $2.36 billion and 783,514 ETH worth approximately $1.78 billion. Only about a third of the deposited ETH went toward loan repayment.
Hong Kong-based investment firm Trend Research executed a tighter operation, depositing 33,589 ETH worth $79 million into Binance over 20 hours.
The firm withdrew 77.5 million USDT to settle its Aave debt, directing nearly the entire sale toward repayment.
Trend Research, an affiliate of LD Capital, had borrowed up to $958 million in stablecoins from Aave to purchase ETH at an average entry price of roughly $3,265 per token. Founder Jack Yi had publicly stated the firm was positioning for a structurally bullish first quarter of 2026.
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Why It Matters: Protocol Stress Test
The voluntary deleveraging coincided with significant protocol activity on Jan. 31, when Aave's automated systems liquidated over $140 million in collateral across multiple blockchain networks.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov described the event as a stress test for the protocol's $50 billion-plus on-chain lending markets. "Aave Protocol liquidated over $140M collateral across multiple networks without any issues, fully automated," Kulechov wrote on X.
Neither whale faced forced liquidation. Both acted preemptively to reduce risk while retaining substantial positions — more than $3 billion in combined ETH holdings between them.