Bitcoin mining entrepreneur Jiang Zhuoer liquidated his entire small-cap decentralized finance token book on Nov. 15, using a morning bounce to exit positions after Bitcoin slid to an intraday low of $62,081 and punched through two support levels he had flagged days earlier.
In a post on X, the founder of mining pool BTC.TOP said the drop came faster than he had anticipated. He described the damage as manageable but said he chose to close the DeFi positions rather than risk deeper losses if the market continued to slide. He also said he would step back from active trading for a while.
The retreat marks a reversal from a thesis he laid out only a day earlier, when he characterized the market as an underdeveloped or premature bull phase. Bitcoin's failure to hold the $63,853 point of control, a volume-based chart level, and the $64,100 line drawn from a 78.6% Fibonacci retracement forced the rethink. He had set $61,576, derived from a volume-area-low reading, as his invalidation threshold; the session low landed within about 0.8% of it before the coin recovered to roughly $65,400.
Jiang did not abandon crypto entirely. He described his remaining book as a hedged, neutral structure: a 100% long in Ethereum, a 100% long in Bitcoin and a Bitcoin short sized at 200% of that exposure, with the short intended to offset risk on his existing holdings. Small-cap DeFi tokens had been deliberately left outside that hedge, which is why they were the first assets cut.
He also flagged a deeper tripwire at $57,800. A break below that level, combined with evidence the market had entered the late stage of a bear cycle, could inflict sharper losses on smaller DeFi names, he warned. He did not claim that scenario had materialized.
The selling unfolded against a brutal session across digital assets. Roughly $1.96 billion in positions were liquidated over 24 hours, according to a Nov. 15 market report, with nearly $750 million tied to Bitcoin and about $600.5 million of that from longs as exchanges closed leveraged trades whose owners could no longer meet collateral requirements.
Spot fund flows offered little comfort. US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds shed about $1.91 billion over seven consecutive sessions through Nov. 13, according to Farside Investors, including $185.4 million on the final day of that stretch. A separate gauge of American buying appetite stayed negative: the Coinbase premium discount had persisted for 51 straight days as of Nov. 13, with Bitcoin changing hands 0.10% below the Binance price at the latest reading.
Note: Support and threshold levels are those published by Jiang; flow and liquidation figures come from Farside Investors and the Nov. 15 market report.
Jiang pushed back on one popular explanation for the carnage: that Binance had deliberately dumped coins to recoup losses from an October security breach. He argued that pricing on Binance was not meaningfully weaker than on rival venues. Instead he pointed to the persistent Coinbase discount, noting that some traders suspect "some major U.S. institution was forced to sell crypto." He did not name any institution or produce evidence of a forced sale, and he left open whether bankruptcy, a margin call or undisclosed information might be driving the activity.
In a separate post, he also challenged speculation that Strategy had pledged its own shares as collateral for corporate borrowings, saying the filings he reviewed showed no such arrangement and pointing instead to convertible bonds and other financing.
Others in the industry were also trimming risk. Yishi, founder of crypto wallet maker OneKey, urged investors to steer clear of leverage and speculative altcoins during the downturn, recommending Bitcoin spot exposure and enough cash on hand to cover living expenses.
The episode carries weight beyond one trader's book. Jiang's willingness to surrender his medium-term bullish call, which he conceded was "fairly serious" as an error, underscores how quickly conviction has eroded in a market where leveraged positions are being flushed out. His exit from small-cap DeFi tokens may encourage other holders of similar assets to follow, particularly with liquidity thinning and ETF demand still retreating.
Traders will now watch whether Bitcoin can stay above the $57,800 mark Jiang identified. A decisive break could open the door to another leg lower for smaller DeFi tokens. Upcoming US spot Bitcoin ETF flow data and the direction of the Coinbase premium will offer the clearest read on whether institutional demand is stabilizing or continuing to bleed.
As of Nov. 15, Bitcoin traded at $65,530, down 1.5% over 24 hours and 13.6% over seven days, according to CoinPaprika. Ethereum changed hands at $1,835, off 2.0% on the day and 17.9% on the week.
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