On January 28, the cryptocurrency market extended its rebound overnight and into the morning. Bitcoin held above the USD 89,000 level, while Ethereum broke through the key USD 3,000 mark, signaling a temporary recovery in overall market sentiment. However, alongside the price rebound, on-chain capital movements showed clear divergence, with some whale addresses continuing to increase their exposure while others took the opportunity to realize profits.
On the bullish side, funds represented by the long-active “BTC OG insider whale” continued to expand risk exposure during the rebound. On-chain data shows that the address increased its leveraged long position in Ethereum earlier today, with total holdings rising to approximately USD 758 million and unrealized losses narrowing further to around USD 30.79 million. In addition, the “Machi” address deposited another 225,000 USDC to increase long positions in ETH and HYPE. As of the time of writing, its total holdings were valued at approximately USD 20.53 million, with unrealized gains nearing USD 1 million.
As Ethereum broke above the USD 3,000 level, capital movements associated with certain institutional-linked addresses also attracted attention. On-chain records indicate that Trend Research borrowed 80 million USDT from lending protocols and transferred the funds to centralized exchanges. Market participants speculate that the funds may be used to further accumulate ETH, reflecting a relatively optimistic outlook among some investors regarding near-term price action.
In contrast to continued accumulation, some so-called “smart money” chose to lock in profits during the rebound. An address that had previously generated nearly USD 100 million through Ethereum swing trading transferred 10,000 stETH to a market-making–related address three hours ago and subsequently received more than 30 million USDC, suggesting that it has completed a phase of profit-taking. In addition, several investor addresses associated with 1INCH sold tokens in a concentrated manner overnight, raising concerns over short-term selling pressure.
It is worth noting that this week coincides with the U.S. Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting. Historical experience shows that FOMC weeks are often accompanied by heightened volatility in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, with optimistic expectations ahead of announcements frequently followed by post-announcement pullbacks. Against this backdrop, combined with the diverging behavior of on-chain whales, market participants are placing increasing emphasis on position management and capital risk control. On-chain transaction monitoring and risk analysis tools such as Trustformer KYT are commonly applied in such high-volatility environments to help identify anomalous fund movements and potential risks.