- The Beluga Brief
- Posts
- 🐳 Weekly Edition: BTC, ETH to Two-Year Lows, Bithumb Airdrops 620k BTC??
🐳 Weekly Edition: BTC, ETH to Two-Year Lows, Bithumb Airdrops 620k BTC??
A system error saw Korean exchange Bithumb airdrop each customer 2,000 BTC, crypto prices feel the heat
Will McKinnon & Beluga
February 06, 2026
Any other day, Bitcoin gaining 16% in 24 hours would be a major cause for celebration. This time however, that 16% came after Bitcoin fell almost 30% in a week to its lowest levels since November 2024. The rest of the crypto market was hit even harder, as Solana fell 40% to a two-year low of $88 and Ethereum dropped as low as $1750.
3 Day Liquidation Levels on Bitcoin, Source: coinglass
One of the more interesting stories to watch through this carnage is that of Trend Research, a Hong Kong-based institutional player that found themselves offsides on a massively levered Ethereum position to the tune of an $860M loss (so far). The firm used Aave to borrow almost $1B in stablecoins to accumulate a position of 651,000 ETH, roughly $1.8B — after the drop in price, Trend was forced to rapidly repay debt to avoid forced liquidation by selling about $700M in ETH.
This is a great example of how liquidation fears can compound on each other, and why it can be so profitable for entities to “hunt” liquidation prices. It also highlights why offering private trading for institutions has become a hot topic recently: at the moment, going long onchain with size essentially puts a target on your back.
On another note, Bithumb completed the largest airdrop in history this week, as an error saw them send 620,000 Bitcoin to customers. Reportedly, a typo caused their system to mistakenly credit users with 2,000 BTC each instead of a small reward of 2,000 Korean won, which would be worth about $1.50. Apparently some users were quick to notice the error and sell the funds, which of course led to large price drops specifcally on the Bithumb exchange. They later issued a statement that 99.7% of the funds had been recovered, but I bet that guy with the last 0.3% is living pretty large right now.
The number is incomprehensibly big
Check out our latest articles below!