「BTC OG Insider Whale」 Deposits 100,000 ETH to Binance

**Thursday, February 1st** Tom Lee told listeners on this week’s *The Compound* podcast that the current crypto bear market stems from the largest deleveraging event in the sector’s history since last October—one even bigger than the FTX collapse. A pricing exploit on a trading platform sparked a chain reaction of automatic liquidations, wiping out over 2 million global accounts, eliminating 1/3 of liquidity providers (LPs), inflicting heavy balance sheet losses on the platform, and leaving the entire ecosystem “hobbled” (per the 46–48 minute mark of the episode). Lee added selling pressure hasn’t fully abated: the 2022 market recovery took 8–12 weeks, but no clear rebound signals have emerged yet.

Pe Shield reported on February 1 that the cryptocurrency sector saw 16 hacking incidents in January 2026, with combined losses totaling $86.01 million. This marks a 1.42% year-over-year decrease from the $87.25 million in losses recorded in January 2025. However, it represents a 13.25% jump from the $75.95 million lost in December 2025. Separately, losses from phishing attacks remain staggering, exceeding $300 million in total.

Feb. 1st: Renowned trader and chart analyst Peter Brandt—who correctly predicted the 2018 Bitcoin crash—hinted this morning that Bitcoin could drop to $58,000. The attached chart shows BTC hovering near the lower bound of a logarithmic channel, pointing to a continued bear market. Yesterday, Brandt forecast Bitcoin will bottom out and rebound between August and October, then rally sharply.

On February 1st, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said in a social media post that Bitcoin prices have continued to decline due to sustained selling pressure and a lack of new capital inflows. Early Bitcoin holders—who’ve amassed massive unrealized gains from ETF and MicroStrategy (MSTR) buying pressure—started taking profits early last year. Back then, strong capital inflows kept Bitcoin’s price around $100,000, but those inflows have now dried up. However, Ki also noted that MicroStrategy is the main driver behind this rally. The market won’t see a 70% crash like in previous cycles unless Michael Saylor (MSTR’s CEO) sells off a significant portion of his holdings. While the current market bottom isn’t clear yet, this bear market could lead to a broad consolidation range.

On February 1st, Ethereum faced short-term pressure, dropping below $2,400 to trade at $2,393.42, per HTX market data. Earlier, the "BTC OG Insider Whale" deposited 100,000 ETH into Binance.

As of February 1, Coinglass data shows Bitcoin delivered a -10.17% return in January—its fifth-worst monthly performance since 2013, well below the 1.91% historical average for the month. Ethereum, meanwhile, posted a -17.52% January return, marking its third-worst showing since 2017 and far under its 16.81% historical January average. Looking ahead to February: Bitcoin’s historical average monthly return is 12.2%, with just 3 instances of negative returns on record. Ethereum’s February average stands at 10.37%, with only 2 cases of negative returns historically.