Whale Liquidations, LINK Moves and $10M OKX Blowup

Between Oct. 16–19, 2025, a series of whale moves and large liquidations drove sharp crypto-market volatility. Sharp BTC weakness triggered major liquidations across DeFi and exchanges — Aave wiped roughly $1.45M and $1.5M WBTC positions after BTC dipped below key thresholds, and an OKX BTC/USDT long was liquidated for about $10M, amplifying short-term selling pressure. Concurrently, notable accumulation and on-chain transfers occurred: a newly created wallet withdrew 142,428 LINK (~$2.4M) from Binance on Oct. 19, and whale 0x887 had earlier accumulated 934,000 LINK and later withdrew 506,000 LINK, signaling swing trading or accumulation that could affect LINK volatility. Large holders also aggressively staked and withdrew $FF tokens — multi‑million withdrawals and cumulative stakes materially reduced circulating supply — while a whale rotated a roughly $1.5M meme-coin portfolio from $USELESS into $BULLISH, moves that can presage rapid token price swings. At the same time, several prominent whales doubled down or flipped into leveraged BTC/ETH longs, creating a split between forced sellers and conviction buyers likely to keep volatility elevated around key BTC support and resistance levels.