The market had already been dragged through the shredder when a massive $500,000,000 in USDC landed on Binance, as per Whale Alert. 

This happened at a time when Ethereum (ETH) dropped below $3,770, Bitcoin was bleeding under $118,200 and over 117,000 accounts had been force-closed in a hours-long liquidation tsunami that erased $348 million across mostly longs.

ETH took the biggest hit, with $35.13 million in liquidations, while BTC and Solana (SOL) followed with $6.73 million and $5.07 million, respectively. What made it worse is that nearly all the pain came from one side — longs. 

In just one hour, $84 million got wiped out, with $79 million of that coming from overleveraged bulls who did not get a chance to reposition before the rug was pulled.

Then, in the aftermath, came the whale: a clean half-billion in USDC dropped from an unidentified wallet directly onto Binance — a direct route from deep pockets to the largest exchange in the world, right after the dust settled.

That timing suggests someone is getting into position, not out of it. Whether the wallet behind the move is prepping to scoop up discounted majors or gearing up to sell into a bounce, the firepower stands out. If this was the warm-up, the main play might still be loading.

The crash may have triggered the liquidations, but the money just showed up. And in crypto, size usually does not sit still for long.