Recently, a piece of on-chain information in the crypto circle caused quite a stir—Trend Research, under Yi Lihua, and the agent of 'BTC OG insider whale' Garrett Jin, are suspected of sharing the same Binance deposit address, sparking intense discussions about whether there is a common backer behind the scenes.
The key to the matter lies in a middle address starting with 0xcdF. On-chain data shows that addresses related to Trend Research transferred about 7.99 million USDT to this address, after which the funds flowed into Binance's hot wallet; almost at the same time, a whale address associated with Garrett Jin also transferred 10,000 ETH to the same 0xcdF address.
It should be noted that the deposit address of Binance is theoretically exclusive to users, especially for hot deposit addresses that are used frequently and in large amounts, the probability of being 'completely shared' by different parties is extremely low. Although it cannot be 100% ruled out that there is system reuse or coincidence, in practical operations, such overlaps themselves are sufficient to raise reasonable suspicion.
Thus, a speculation began to circulate in the market:
Is there a financially powerful backer who obtained a large amount of BTC last year through inheritance or at a very low cost?
However, due to his limited understanding of trading, leverage, and risk management, he chose to 'diversify trust'—dividing the funds into three parts, each managed by Yi Lihua, Garrett Jin, and a well-known fund, trying to reduce risk by using the approach of 'not putting all eggs in one basket.'
However, reality is far more brutal than imagined.
In last week's extreme market conditions, this kind of 'diversified yet highly correlated' operation did not disperse risk, but instead triggered a chain of margin calls at the same time. When brokers concentrated on margin calls, the funding chain snapped instantly, forcing a frantic sell-off of IBIT spot shares and a forced liquidation of options positions, ultimately almost going to zero overnight.
It is worth noting that former Huobi founder Li Lin subsequently clarified in his circle of friends:
He is not the financial backer behind Yi Lihua Trend Research and Garrett Jin, and during this round of market fluctuations, he has never reduced his holdings $BTC and $ETH , clearly denying related rumors.
