Whale Takes Major Hit in $VIRTUAL Trade, Losing $4.48 Million in Just 13 Days

In the world of cryptocurrency, where trades can be extremely risky, one whale recently took a shellacking. The bitcoin and Ethereum whale known as 0x560 made a poor bet on a new project called $VIRTUAL, a token that has seen some turmoil and no shortage of drama since its debut.

The 0x560 wallet bought nearly $10 million worth of $VIRTUAL earlier this month. Twelve days later, it sold at a 45.4% loss, or nearly $4.5 million. By my count, that makes $VIRTUAL a no-good bet and a big loser for the 0x560 whale.

A Risky Bet on $VIRTUAL: Whale’s Entry and Exit

From January 27 to 29, 2025, the whale purchased 4.88 million $VIRTUAL tokens for $9.86 million. The average price paid for these tokens was around $2.017 per $VIRTUAL. At the time, the whale very likely had their eye on what they expected to be significant returns since the market for $VIRTUAL was gaining a lot of attention.

Regrettably, the enthusiasm around $VIRTUAL soon dissipated, and the token’s value started to drop. By February 3–9, 2023, the whale decided to stop the bleeding and sold all 4.88 million tokens for a mere $5.37 million. This sale brought the average sale price down to $1.101 per token—more than 90% off the multisig wallet’s initial purchase price.

The outcome of this trading activity is a considerable loss amounting to $4.48 million, or a 45.4% reduction in value, over just 13 days. This is the first instance of a whale trading $VIRTUAL, and you certainly wouldn’t say it was an experience to write home about.

A Cautionary Tale for Big Spenders

The whale’s exit from $VIRTUAL serves as a fitting reminder that the crypto market, while giving some people the opportunity for immense gains, also carries risks that can and do lead to huge losses in very short amounts of time. $VIRTUAL, a token that may have looked like a promising investment, failed to maintain its momentum, and now its community has to face the reality of what happened to the large amount of capital that seemed to have been invested in its growth. For whales, who typically hold large amounts of tokens, these types of sudden losses are impactful.

Losing a large sum of money is a setback, but it’s not unusual in the world of large-scale trading. Traders who deal in cryptoassets are familiar with the asset classes’ notorious volatility. Prices can swing dramatically over a matter of days, hours, or even minutes. Whale traders wade into the market, expecting to take on a significant amount of risk. But the market’s unpredictability means that even well-laid plans can sometimes go awry, resulting in sharp losses.

In this case, the whale might have invested in $VIRTUAL expecting its price to keep going up and not to drop more quickly than anticipated. When it lost 45.4% of its price in a very short amount of time, the whale might have made the decision to sell off the tokens it had in a hurry because it was really starting to panic. By this time, it might have feared that the price was going to keep dropping and that it was going to lose even more in the near future.

What’s Next for Whale 0x560?

Although Whale 0x560 reversed a well-structured trade they had going with $VIRTUAL, the characterization of Tuna’s alert as “bad news” remains unproven. It is entirely possible that Tuna’s trade will end poorly for them and that Whale 0x560 will profit from reversing a bad trade. Markets are cyclical. A sharp decline like $VIRTUAL’s can often lead to a strong recovery in the near future.

The issue still is whether this experience will change the investment strategy of the whale. In the super-unstable crypto market, there are a number of factors—timing, market sentiment, and the overall economic environment—that determine whether a token rises or falls. For now, Whale 0x560 may still be coming to grips with the $4.48 million hit and thinking about what it will do differently going forward.

In the end, Whale 0x560’s trade serves as a warning for other investors in the virtual-world-space. The crypto universe is as tempting as it is risky. Virtual-world advocates promise high returns. But those returns are not guaranteed, as this tale illustrates. Right now, it’s not clear whether Whale 0x560 will re-enter the virtual world via $VIRTUAL or will invest in some other token. What is clear, though, is that this trade will go down in history as a tough exit. Why? Because it involves a hit to the Whale’s structural capital, in the vicinity of 25,000 ETH, in an exit that seems, at best, ill-timed.

In terms of $VIRTUAL itself, this loss might be indicating that a broader trend is affecting the token’s performance. If that’s the case, it could mean that investors have a lot to worry about when it comes to this particular piece of digital real estate. To better understand the situation, let’s take a closer look at what might be going on with the token and the overall cryptocurrency market.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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