Please be kind to Jack Yi

Author: Gu Yu, ChainCatcher

With the sharp decline in BTC and ETH prices over the past few days, the positions of Jack Yi, founder of Trend Research and Liquid Capital (formerly LD Capital), have drawn significant attention from many investors in the crypto space. His leveraged position of 650,000 ETH is now precarious in the current market, just a step away from liquidation.

For this staunch ETH bull, a rare on-chain trader, and a representative of Asian crypto institutions, the current situation is indeed somewhat cruel and lamentable. After all, concepts like "transparency," "bullish sentiment," and "research-driven" align with the mainstream values of crypto, and Yi's "battle" this time is, to some extent, a "battle for the legitimacy" of the crypto industry.

So, how did all this happen? Why did Yi go from successfully selling at the top to bottom-fishing and getting trapped? And what insights and lessons can this leave us with?

From Bottom-Fishing to Selling at the Top

Jack Yi is an early OG in the Chinese crypto community, having invested in hundreds of blockchain projects since 2015. Early investment cases include EOS, Qtum, VeChain, and in 2017, through LD Capital, he invested in well-known projects like Near, CertiK, and MEXC.

Some investment cases of LD Capital Source: RootData

Since the beginning of 2025, Yi's focus has shifted from the primary crypto market to the secondary market. In April 2025, the price of ETH fell to a new low since 2022, dropping to as low as $1,385. Yi's bottom-fishing quietly began at this time.

At the end of April, Trend Research publicly released a report bullish on ETH when the price rose to $1,800, stating, "Under the trend, more upward movement in the crypto market is imminent."

At the end of May 2025, Trend Research's frequent large-scale on-chain purchases were discovered and disclosed by on-chain analyst Yu Jin, and Yi immediately claimed these addresses on X. At this point, ETH had risen to $2,600, and Trend Research's on-chain addresses held a total of 133,000 ETH, worth $360 million.

However, it should be noted that Trend Research's operations were not entirely cash-based; a significant portion of the funds used to buy ETH was borrowed against the ETH purchased earlier on Aave, effectively adding several times leverage.

In June 2025, Trend Research published another article titled "Written on the Eve of a Surge: Why We Are Bullish on ETH," which mentioned that the institution still believed in the underlying logic of ETH: the Trump administration's commitment to establishing a stablecoin system… and that the most important infrastructure for stablecoins and on-chain finance is Ethereum. The influx of stablecoins and the continuous development of RWA will bring further prosperity to DeFi, increasing Ethereum's consumption and GAS revenue, thereby boosting its market value.

At this time, the price of ETH was around $2,800. Yi publicly stated that he believed ETH's long-term price could exceed $5,000, and in an optimistic scenario, BTC's price could rise above $300,000, with ETH expected to reach $10,000. Meanwhile, Yi mentioned that he had purchased 100,000 ETH options.

In July 2025, Yi tweeted that the market had completely entered a long bull market, and there might no longer be traditional four-year cycle patterns. Stablecoins and blockchain represent the best opportunity for the globalization of the dollar for the United States, with investments in cryptocurrencies and stocks in one hand and earning interest on stablecoins in the other; the market would continuously attract new users and funds.

After that, Yi almost increased his positions every month until early October when he began to warn about market risks and quickly transferred most of his ETH holdings to Binance for sale, at that time around $4,700, just escaping the October 11 incident. He later stated that he saw signs of a market downturn from the investment research data.

Through this round of precise bottom-fishing (starting to build positions around $1,800 in the first half of the year) and realizing profits at the peak, Yi achieved significant doubled profits and solidified his influence as a top trend investor in the Chinese-speaking community.

Second Round of Positioning and Being Trapped

In the reshuffled market after the October 11 incident, Yi saw another opportunity to build positions. At the beginning of November, Yi tweeted again that ETH was starting to rebound and continued to be optimistic about the subsequent market and the strategy of buying on dips. He later stated that the $3,000-$3,300 range was the spot buying zone for ETH.

As ETH continued to pull back, Yi stated that under the dip-buying strategy, he had fully invested in ETH at a price of $2,700, and then continued to increase his position through leveraged borrowing during the decline, reaching over 650,000 ETH by January this year, with an average cost reported to be $3,180.

"When ETH dropped to over $1,000, we saw through the main force's intention to clean out the ETH OG bulls and successfully bottomed out. When ETH rose to over $4,500, we saw through the market's rise to the peak and successfully liquidated. Trend Research has proven successful bottom-fishing and selling at the top in 2025; we will not change our investment strategy due to emotions," Yi was still encouraging the market in January.

But no one could have predicted that the market would hit this seasoned investor hard at this time, as the price of ETH continuously broke through key levels of $2,200, $2,000, and $1,800 in early February, approaching his liquidation price.

In just a few days, Yi continuously sold about 200,000 ETH to stop losses, lowering his liquidation price to around $1,600, thus narrowly escaping a disaster during the significant drop early this morning. According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's analysis today, Trend Research has incurred a loss of $763 million this time, not only giving back all the previous profits but also losing $448 million in principal.

In recent days, Yi has tweeted to admit mistakes, stating, "Since the top liquidation, it was indeed a mistake to be overly bullish on ETH too early, because BTC was around $100,000 while ETH remained at $3,000, which we believed was undervalued. Currently, the previous round of profits has been given back, and position size determines thinking. While controlling risks, we will continue to wait for the market to move upward. Thank you all for your concern; investing and trading are the most challenging. Being in the industry, one always can't help but be bullish."

"Why can't I help but be bullish? It relates to my past entrepreneurial experience. Back then, I couldn't find a job and started my own business. After earning my first bucket of gold, I didn't dare to spend lavishly but invested in tech projects. Entering the crypto space in 2015 coincided with that golden era, which was a continuous journey of bullish gains. However, the subsequent bear market led to significant losses in investments, and I couldn't withstand the bear market, liquidating BTC early and ultimately missing the big bull market after March 12. We have experienced two rounds of bear markets followed by bull markets, so this time after selling at the top, I was quite confident in bottom-fishing too early, continuing to wait while controlling risks."

Three Arrows Capital founder Zhu Su posted on X to discuss this matter, stating, "In my experience, selling at a high is often more dangerous than selling during a decline. This is because the excitement from selling at a high can lead to premature buying and overconfidence. I suspect Jack Yi made a similar arrogant mistake after earning nine-digit profits on October 10."

However, after experiencing this setback, Yi still expressed his firm view on the future market, stating, "As a bull in this round, we remain optimistic about the performance of the new bull market: ETH will reach above $10,000, and BTC will exceed $200,000. We only made some adjustments to control risks. I know everyone is disappointed with the industry and the leaders, especially with the liquidity shortage and some platforms manipulating the market brought by the October 11 incident, but I believe the long-term trend of the crypto space remains unchanged. Now is the best time to buy spot. Volatility is the biggest characteristic of the crypto space; countless bulls have been thrown off by this volatility, but often the subsequent rebounds are doubled."

Currently, the price of ETH has rebounded to around $1,900, and the position risk of Trend Research has significantly decreased, but the impact and insights from this event will continue to resonate.

The Market Needs More Bullish Sentiment and Transparency

As one of the few representatives choosing "on-chain transparency" and openly sharing all thoughts and position dynamics, Yi's every statement and action has, in an invisible way, become a mirror for the industry: reflecting the belief in trend investing while amplifying the non-linear risks of leverage; showcasing the power of logic realization in a bull market while exposing the fragile balance between emotions and positions during a pullback.

Yet, in a market still dominated by anonymous manipulators, platform manipulation, and information asymmetry, Yi's public choice itself is a rare courage—he validates his judgments through real on-chain operations rather than mere talk. This approach, while bringing immense personal pressure and temporary floating losses, provides countless retail investors and small to medium institutions with the most intuitive textbook: how to sell at the top in a bull market, how to bottom-fish in a bear market, how to manage leverage, and how to restrain emotions.

In the highly volatile and uncertain arena of the crypto market, no matter how brilliant past successes or profound cyclical insights may be, they cannot completely exempt participants from the harsh lessons of the market—because each cycle will test participants anew with different forms, intensities, and variables. In this cycle, the crypto market has become closely intertwined with the macroeconomic environment (CPI, U.S. stocks, gold, etc.) and geopolitical events, and any significant changes outside the industry could reverse the cyclical trends within.

This experience once again proves that what truly determines whether investors can navigate through cycles is not the correctness of a single directional choice, but whether they leave enough room for survival for each judgment amid ongoing uncertainty, as well as the ability to stop losses and restart promptly when mistakes occur. Respecting the market is a principle that every investor must always adhere to.

Additionally, it is worth noting that Trend Research, as one of the top three ETH holding entities in the market, has become a barometer for institutional crypto investors in the Asia-Pacific region. Its successes and failures also concern the voice and position of the Asian market in the crypto industry. There are also views in the market that the Asian market, as a significant liquidity support for the current crypto market, has a high proportion of retail investors, with emotions transmitted more intensely. Once the bullish sentiment is broken, there is a risk that the Asian market will long-term become a passive recipient of North American narratives and liquidity.

Fortunately, Yi and his Trend Research are still at the table. The crypto industry needs more steadfast "bulls," more "transparency," and more "Jack Yis."

It is essential to know that the story of Trend Research will be seen by more mainstream institutions and deep-pocketed entities. The crypto industry needs more stories that emphasize research, adhere to investment discipline, and control risks to achieve returns, rather than more MEME-style wealth transfers. The former can bring in incremental investors, while the latter can only exacerbate the casino-like nature of the crypto industry.