TL;DR
- Trend Research bought $35M ETH, lifting holdings above 601,000 ETH (~$1.83B) after borrowing $958M stablecoins from Aave at ~$3,265 average.
- Jack Yi says he is bullish for 1H 2026, will keep buying, run a maximum ETH position, and hold WLFI heavily through volatility cycles.
- Fundstrat warned ETH near $1,800 in 1H 2026; Tom Lee also chairs BitMine; Nansen smart money net short $117M added $15M longs.
Trend Research is leaning harder into Ether as year-end positioning compresses timelines for 2026. The Hong Kong firm bought $35 million of ETH, lifting its stack above 601,000 ETH worth about $1.83 billion. Lookonchain also tracked the financing leg: Trend has borrowed $958 million in stablecoins from Aave and built the position at an average cost near $3,265 per ETH. That scale lands even as a major corporate Ethereum holder is bracing for a sharp first-quarter 2026 drawdown, setting up a high-contrast backdrop for execution across public markets.
This #66kETHBorrow Whale(confirmed to be Trend Research) just bought another 11,520 $ETH($34.93M).https://t.co/Zuz4m0o4rf pic.twitter.com/W4zTLoFVeZ
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 29, 2025
ETH Bet Gets Bigger
Founder Jack Yi says he is bullish for the first half of 2026 and plans to keep buying Ether “until the bull market arrives.” His stance is intentionally concentrated: maximum position in ETH alongside a “heavy” allocation to the Trump family-linked WLFI token. Yi frames next year as a tailwind set, pointing to financial activity moving onchain, stablecoin rails, rate cut cycles, and friendlier crypto policies. He also signaled he will buy through “fluctuations of a few hundred dollars,” treating volatility as noise. For allocators, it’s a leverage-and-conviction play now, period.
A competing view comes from Fundstrat Global Advisors, which flagged a local bottom near $1,800 ETH in Q1 2026 and warned of a “meaningful drawdown” in the first half of the coming year. The internal note also sketched BTC at $60,000 to $65,000 and SOL at $50 to $75, with a “durable low” in Q1 or Q3 before a rally into year-end. The surprise is the messenger: Tom Lee, Fundstrat’s co-founder, is also chairman of BitMine, the largest corporate Ether holder with about $12.3 billion in ETH holdings.
In practice, positioning looks fragmented. Trend says it will keep accumulating regardless of dollar swings, while BitMine leans on dollar-cost averaging and Trend remains an unlisted holder missing from most public dashboards, including StrategicEthReserve. Yet Trend still ranks third in Ether held behind BitMine and SharpLink Gaming, making its moves hard to ignore. Derivatives flows add a layer: Nansen’s “smart money” cohort was net short ETH by $117 million, but added $15 million in longs over 24 hours, hinting at a rebound in risk appetite. 2026 upside is being priced with hedges attached.
