A whale that kicked off the year by investing $8 million in a basket of tokens now holds a long position with a $2.8 million unrealized gain

On January 3rd, Easy Lihua—founder of Liquid Capital (formerly LD Capital)—took to social media to share his takes: “Why are investors like Buffett and Duan Yongping respected? Because they make money from value and trends, not speculation.” “This year’s trend is a bull market. Neither the macro environment nor the industry’s development stage is something we can control; we can only spot trends and follow them. Lately, I’ve seen bears still clinging to their short positions, but as we noted before: in a 26-year bull run, bears who closed their shorts early only took small losses. Waiting longer would lead to massive, devastating losses.” “Anyone still bearish on the market is either just talking the talk or cannon fodder. After over a month of volatility (bulls vs. bears), bulls will surely grow complacent. Pessimists are always right in hindsight, but optimists are the ones who move forward.”

On January 3, Web3 security platform Scam Sniffer reported that crypto phishing losses tied to wallet drainers fell to roughly $83.85 million in 2025—plunging 83% from nearly $494 million in 2024. The number of victims dropped to 106, a 68% year-over-year decrease. However, the report noted phishing hasn’t gone away—it’s highly tied to market cycles. In Q3 2025, as Ethereum staged a strong rebound, phishing losses hit a yearly high of $31 million, making up nearly 29% of the full year’s total. December saw the lowest monthly loss (~$2.04 million), while August had the highest ($12.17 million). In terms of tactics, Permit/Permit2 authorization phishing remains attackers’ most effective tool. The biggest single case of 2025 occurred in September, with losses reaching $6.5 million. Additionally, after Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, a new malicious signature attack tied to EIP-7702 quickly emerged, causing $2.54 million in losses across two August incidents. Notably, large-scale cases

January 3rd — Per Coinglass data, total net Bitcoin outflow from centralized exchanges (CEXs) hit 1,560.80 BTC over the past 24 hours. The top three exchanges by Bitcoin outflow are: - Binance: 1,298.79 BTC outflow - Bitfinex: 959.75 BTC outflow - Gate: 213.51 BTC outflow Additionally, Coinbase Pro recorded a 701.87 BTC inflow, topping the inflow rankings.

On January 3rd, per lookonchain monitoring, a whale address deposited 74,002 ZEC into Binance, with the tokens valued at approximately $35.75 million.

**January 3rd Update** CryptoQuant.com Head of Research Julio Moreno noted in a post that Bitcoin whales haven’t accumulated large amounts of Bitcoin. Most “whale data” circulating in the market stems from exchange address consolidation: exchanges are merging large asset holdings into fewer addresses with bigger balances, creating the appearance that whales have sharply boosted their Bitcoin holdings recently. Data excluding all exchange addresses reveals whale holdings are actually declining (Chart 1). The same trend applies to addresses holding 100–1,000 Bitcoin—a bracket widely linked to ETF holdings (Chart 2).

January 3rd, per Coinglass data, cumulative long liquidation intensity across major centralized exchanges (CEXs) will hit $494 million if Bitcoin drops below $89,000. Conversely, cumulative short liquidation intensity on these major CEXs will reach $380 million should Bitcoin climb above $91,000. BlockBeats Note: Liquidation charts do not show the exact number of contracts pending liquidation or the precise value of those contracts. Instead, the bars on these charts represent how significant each liquidation cluster is relative to adjacent clusters—i.e., its intensity. In short, these charts indicate the degree to which the underlying asset’s price will be impacted when it hits a specific level. A taller “liquidation bar” signals a more pronounced price reaction driven by a liquidity cascade.