When Bitcoin started sliding hard again on November 15, one of the better-known names in Chinese mining circles decided he had seen enough. Jiang Zhuoer, the founder of the BTC.TOP mining pool, used a short morning rebound to exit every small-cap decentralized finance token in his portfolio. The move came after price action smashed through levels he had publicly expected to hold. In my view, this kind of rapid repositioning by someone who has lived through multiple cycles deserves more attention than most casual commentary.
What Jiang Zhuoer Actually Did During the Latest Drop
Jiang did not simply panic-sell everything. He was careful about the sequence. According to his own account, the morning bounce offered enough liquidity to close the smaller DeFi positions cleanly. He described the losses as still manageable, yet admitted the speed of the decline caught him off guard. That honesty stands out. Many traders prefer to stay silent when their thesis starts cracking.
Importantly, he did not walk away from crypto entirely. His remaining book stays active, though now structured very differently. He outlined a combination of positions he considers roughly neutral: full long exposure to Ethereum, full long exposure to Bitcoin, and a Bitcoin short sized at twice the long Bitcoin position. The short is meant to offset the directional risk from the longs. Whether that hedge performs as intended depends on how the two assets move relative to each other in the coming sessions.
He made clear that the small-cap DeFi tokens had sat outside this protective structure from the beginning. Once Bitcoin broke the levels he watched closely, those tokens suddenly looked too exposed. So he cut them and announced a temporary pause from active trading while he reassesses the broader picture.
The Price Levels That Forced the Decision
Two specific numbers mattered a great deal to Jiang. He had marked the volume point of control near $63,853 as a level that should provide meaningful support. He also watched the 78.6 percent Fibonacci retracement around $64,100. Both gave way with little resistance. That rapid failure forced him to confront the possibility that his medium-term bullish outlook had been premature.
Bitcoin eventually printed an intraday low near $62,081. That put the market less than one percent away from another key volume-area low he had flagged at $61,576. The proximity was uncomfortable. After the low, price recovered toward the mid-$65,000 region, yet the weekly damage remained significant. The seven-day decline still sat close to 14 percent at the time of his comments.
Perhaps the most interesting part of his update was the conditional warning he attached to $57,800. If Bitcoin were to lose that level and the market turned out to be deeper into a bear phase than many hope, Jiang believes the smaller DeFi tokens could face considerably steeper drawdowns. He stopped short of declaring that scenario active. Still, the fact that he voiced it publicly after exiting those positions carries weight.
How the Broader Market Looked While He Sold
The backdrop was ugly. Liquidations across the crypto market reached nearly two billion dollars in a single 24-hour window. Bitcoin alone accounted for a large share of that total, with long positions making up the majority of the forced selling. Leveraged traders who could no longer meet margin requirements were simply closed out by exchanges. That cascade added extra pressure at exactly the wrong moment.
Spot demand also looked soft. United States Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded roughly 1.91 billion dollars in net outflows across seven consecutive sessions. One single Friday contributed more than 185 million dollars of that total. At the same time, the Coinbase premium stayed negative for more than fifty days in a row. Bitcoin traded at a small but persistent discount on Coinbase relative to other major venues. That kind of prolonged discount often signals weaker institutional or retail buying interest in the United States.
Other industry voices were delivering similar caution. One founder of a hardware wallet company publicly urged people to avoid leverage and speculative altcoins during the downturn. He recommended holding Bitcoin in spot form and keeping enough cash for ordinary living expenses. The tone across experienced participants felt more defensive than it had only weeks earlier.
Jiang’s Pushback Against Popular Rumors
While markets were sliding, online speculation intensified. Some traders claimed a major exchange was deliberately selling crypto assets to recover losses from an earlier security incident. Jiang rejected that theory. He pointed out that prices on the platform in question were not trading at a meaningful discount to other large exchanges. If coordinated selling had been the primary driver, one would expect clearer price dislocations.
Instead he focused attention on the persistent Coinbase discount. He noted that some market participants suspected a large United States institution might be under forced selling pressure. The idea remains speculative. No specific firm has been identified, and no public evidence confirms a margin call or bankruptcy-driven liquidation. Still, the question he raised is legitimate: something has kept United States demand subdued for weeks.
In a separate comment he also addressed rumors about a well-known Bitcoin treasury company. Some observers had suggested the firm pledged its own equity as collateral for loans. Jiang said the public filings he reviewed showed convertible bonds and other financing structures, not share pledges of the kind being discussed. Clearing up that particular claim helped reduce one layer of unnecessary noise.
Why Small-Cap DeFi Tokens Became the First Cut
Anyone who has traded through a few crypto winters understands the hierarchy of risk. When liquidity evaporates, the smallest and least established tokens usually suffer first and most severely. Jiang’s decision to exit those positions while keeping the larger, more liquid assets under a hedge makes practical sense. The smaller names simply offered the worst risk-reward once the market structure started breaking.
I have watched similar patterns play out in previous cycles. Projects that looked promising during rising prices suddenly face thin order books and cascading liquidations once sentiment flips. The traders who survive tend to be the ones willing to admit the environment has changed and to adjust before the damage becomes permanent. Jiang’s public acknowledgment that his medium-term forecast had been “seriously wrong” fits that pattern of adaptive thinking.
His remaining structure—long Bitcoin, long Ethereum, short Bitcoin at twice the size—creates a position that is less about directional conviction and more about managing residual exposure while he steps back. Whether that hedge proves perfect is secondary. The more important signal is the willingness to reduce complexity when conditions deteriorate.
What the $57,800 Level Really Represents
Jiang did not treat $57,800 as an immediate target. He framed it as a conditional risk. If the market continues lower and that level fails, the probability of a deeper, more prolonged bear phase rises. In that environment, he expects the smaller DeFi tokens he just sold to experience outsized losses. The warning is not a prediction of certain collapse. It is a clear statement of where the next major decision point may sit.
For traders still holding similar risk assets, the message is straightforward. Position size and liquidity matter more when volatility expands. Waiting for absolute confirmation can sometimes mean accepting much larger losses than necessary. Jiang chose to act while the losses on those particular tokens remained manageable. That discipline is worth noting.
The Psychological Side of Changing Stance Publicly
Public figures in crypto face a unique pressure. Changing a previously optimistic stance can feel like admitting defeat. Yet markets do not reward ego. Jiang’s decision to state openly that his earlier view of an emerging bull market had been premature is, in many ways, a strength. It allows him to reset without the baggage of defending a broken thesis.
I’ve found that the most durable participants over multiple cycles share this trait. They treat forecasts as provisional. When the data shifts, they shift with it. The temporary pause from active trading he announced also makes sense. Stepping away for a period often produces clearer thinking than forcing trades while emotions remain elevated.
How Liquidations Amplified the Move
The nearly two billion dollars of liquidations in a single day created a feedback loop. Forced selling pushed prices lower, which triggered additional margin calls, which produced still more selling. Bitcoin’s long liquidations formed a substantial portion of the total. That kind of cascade is rarely clean. It tends to overshoot fair value on the downside before equilibrium returns.
Even after the immediate liquidation wave subsided, the market still had to contend with the multi-day ETF outflows and the stubborn Coinbase discount. Those factors suggested that the selling pressure was not limited to leveraged traders. Spot demand had also cooled. In such an environment, the decision to reduce exposure to the least liquid assets appears prudent rather than purely reactive.
Comparing Jiang’s Approach With Other Market Voices
While Jiang was adjusting his book, other experienced participants were delivering parallel messages. The emphasis on avoiding leverage and speculative tokens appeared across multiple independent comments. The consistent theme was capital preservation. Holding core Bitcoin exposure in spot form and maintaining liquidity for personal expenses ranked higher than chasing recovery trades.
This convergence of caution among people who have operated through previous drawdowns is itself a data point. It does not guarantee further downside, but it does suggest that the easy part of the previous advance is over. Markets that require constant defensive positioning rarely reward aggressive new risk-taking.
The Practical Takeaway for Everyday Holders
Most retail participants will never run a mining pool or manage a multi-asset hedge. Still, the principles Jiang illustrated remain useful. First, know which parts of a portfolio sit outside any protective structure. Second, decide in advance which levels would force a reassessment. Third, be willing to act when those levels break rather than hoping for an immediate reversal.
The hierarchy of risk also matters. Highly liquid large-cap assets and carefully sized hedges behave differently from thinly traded small-cap tokens. When the market environment deteriorates, the latter group usually suffers first. Reducing or eliminating that exposure early can preserve capital for better opportunities later.
- Identify which holdings lack meaningful liquidity or hedging
- Define clear invalidation levels before volatility expands
- Prefer action over hope once those levels fail
- Maintain enough cash or stable assets to avoid forced decisions
- Treat public forecasts as provisional rather than permanent
Why the Speed of the Decline Mattered
Jiang specifically noted that the latest move happened faster than he anticipated. Speed changes the psychology of a market. Gradual declines allow time for adjustment and for new buyers to appear. Sharp drops compress that process and often leave participants reacting rather than planning. The fact that he was able to use a brief rebound to exit cleanly is noteworthy. Not every trader gets that window.
The proximity of the intraday low to his $61,576 volume-area low added another layer of tension. Markets that approach critical levels without respect for them tend to produce larger follow-through moves. Although price recovered afterward, the damage to confidence was already done for many.
Looking Ahead Without Overconfidence
No single trader’s positioning defines the market. Yet the combination of factors present on November 15—broken support levels, elevated liquidations, multi-day ETF outflows, and a persistent exchange premium discount—created a challenging backdrop. Jiang’s response was to simplify, hedge the core, and step back. That sequence is difficult to criticize on risk-management grounds.
Whether Bitcoin finds lasting support above $60,000 or eventually tests the $57,800 region he flagged remains unknown. What is clearer is that the previous assumption of an emerging bull market required revision. Traders who adjust early often retain more optionality than those who defend a thesis past its usefulness.
In the end, Jiang Zhuoer’s decision to sell the small-cap DeFi tokens was less about abandoning crypto and more about matching risk to the current environment. He kept the larger positions under a deliberate hedge and chose to reduce complexity while conditions remained uncertain. For anyone still holding similar high-beta exposure, the logic behind that choice is worth careful consideration.
Markets will eventually provide new information. Until then, the traders who treat capital preservation as the first priority tend to be the ones still standing when the next clear opportunity appears. Jiang’s latest update serves as a practical reminder of that simple reality.
