Bitcoin whale stirs market with $450M short position on Hyperliquid

Bitcoin remains above $84,000 despite the short position drama, offering a test of the market's resilience.

Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.

A Bitcoin whale on Hyperliquid has stirred discussions over the weekend after placing a massive $450 million short position on the top crypto.

Over the weekend, the trader opened a highly leveraged short position in BTC perpetual futures that was initially valued at over $300 million. The trade was executed with 40x leverage and a liquidation price of $85,290.

As of press time, data from Hypurscan indicates that the trader currently holds a 5,022 BTC short position, worth around $420 million, with an unrealized profit of over $2 million. The liquidation price now sits above $86,000.

Bitcoin Whale Trader on Hyperliquid. (Source: Hypurrscan)

Beyond Bitcoin, the trader also maintains a long, 5x leveraged position on 571,714 MELANIA tokens from US First Lady Melania Trumpy valued at $384,203.

Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time this trader has drawn attention. Earlier this month, they made headlines after executing a 50x leveraged Ethereum position, which resulted in a $4 million loss for Hyperliquid.

The incident prompted the decentralized trading platform to reassess its risk management strategies by maintaining “healthier margin requirements and reducing the systemic impact of large positions with hypothetical market impact upon closing.”

‘Hunt down’

The size of the short position sparked reactions across social media, with crypto trader CBB calling for a coordinated effort to counter the whale’s position by driving Bitcoin’s price higher.

A screenshot shared by CBB hinted that Tron founder Justin Sun was among those attempting to force the trader into liquidation.

However, despite a brief surge that pushed Bitcoin above $84,690 over the weekend, the strategy appeared to fail.

Blokchchain analysis platform Lookonchain reported that the BTC whale had quickly reinforced their position by adding $5 million in USDC in margin, which prevented their liquidation and strengthened the short trade.

Hours after, CBB admitted defeat, stating that while the particular attempt failed, the broader contest was not over.

Nevertheless, Bitcoin’s price is trading above $84,000, which is up around 0.8% during the last 24 hours, according to CryptoSlate’s data. If BTC continues its upward trajectory, the whale’s position might suffer losses.

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