- A single wallet deployed $16 million to ignite a 200% surge in the XPL token on Hyperliquid.
- The move triggered a liquidation cascade that wiped out a total of $16.6 million in short positions.
- The trader behind the move secured over $14 million in profit in less than one hour from the trade.
A single, massive trade on Hyperliquid ignited a 200% surge in the XPL token in minutes. At 05:35 UTC-4, on-chain data shows wallet 0xb9c0 deployed $16 million in USDC to open a large long position on millions of XPL tokens.
The move instantly cleared the order book, lifting the price from $0.60 to $1.80 and forcing a cascade of liquidations across short positions. The trader behind the move secured over $14 million in profit in less than an hour. This explosive event comes as the Hyperliquid rally has accelerated even more.
Was the Trade Linked to Justin Sun?
According to Lookonchain, the trader funded the wallet with $4.99 million in USDC and $10.98 million in USDT that was cross-chained through DeBridge.
Speculation quickly spread after observers pointed to a years-old ETH transfer between this wallet and an address once linked to Tron founder Justin Sun. As of now, no direct confirmation has been made.
How Much Money Did Short Sellers Lose?
The trade immediately wiped out several large short positions. One wallet, 0xc2cb, lost a $7 million short, and in total, $16.6 million in shorts were liquidated. The event caused XPL perpetual trading volume to surge 311% to $161 million in 24 hours. Fees on the platform spiked to a record $7.7 million, while open interest crashed by 70%. Hours later, the token’s price fully retraced back to $0.60.
The Hyperliquid Liquidity Provider (HLP) vault earned approximately $47,000 in fees from the volatility. However, the event highlights the risks for liquidity providers, as a similar event with the JELLY token previously cost the HLP vault nearly $12 million; the platform’s unique structure being a key reason why its founder, Jeff Yan, rejected all venture capital.
Retail accounts took the brunt of the damage. One trader reported losing $185,000 even after adding margin to their short position. The wallet that initiated the trade continues to hold over $9.8 million in open XPL longs.
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