Bitcoin Today News: Hyperliquid Mysterious Whale Shorting BTC for $121 Million at 10x

The mysterious trader known as “Hyperliquid Whale” is famous for his large margin trading on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid. The account associated with the Ethereum address “0xb317D” currently holds a short position of BTC worth $121.72 million on Hyperliquid, with a leverage of 10x cross leverage.

Hyperliquid Whale $121 million short position analysis

(Source: Hyperliquid)

According to on-chain data, the Ethereum address “0xb317D”, which has long been associated with the “Hyperliquid Whale”, currently holds a short position of 121.72 million USD in BTC on Hyperliquid, with a leverage of 10x cross leverage. The position size is approximately equivalent to 1100 BTC-USD contracts, with an entry price of 109,762 USD, and the current quoted price is around 110,629 USD.

As of the time of this news release, the trade shows an unrealized loss of -$953,902, but is balanced by a positive capital gain of $13,688. This means that although the price trend is unfavorable for the Whale, as a short holder, he has been compensated from the financing rate. In the perpetual contract market, when the financing rate is positive, longs need to pay shorts, which provides a holding cost subsidy for shorting.

The whale's liquidation price is $135,320, indicating strong conviction that Bitcoin's recent rebound will reverse. There is approximately a 22% buffer from the current price of $110,629 to the liquidation price of $135,320. 10x leverage means that for every 10% rise in Bitcoin, the position will incur a loss of about 100%, so the liquidation price corresponds to an increase of about 23% from the entry price.

The total value of this wallet is 29.03 million USD, almost entirely related to perpetual contracts, with only a small amount of spot holdings, approximately 141.79 USD. This extreme leverage trading style indicates that the whale is purely a derivatives trader, rather than a long-term holder. When Bitcoin was trading at 110,800 USD each around 6:45 PM Eastern Time, the whale's re-entry signaled a bearish stance after BTC broke through recent lows and rebounded by double digits from this week's opening price.

Legendary Performance: Early October Trading Profit of 190 Million USD

This Hyperliquid whale is notorious for its precise and high-risk macro-driven cryptocurrency trading record. Earlier this October, the same wallet executed hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin and Ether shorting ahead of significant political and economic announcements that led to a sharp market decline. It is reported that these early trades generated over $190 million in realized profits.

This performance is the most striking part of today's Bitcoin news. The ability to accurately establish shorting positions before major market events and achieve such huge profits indicates that the trader either possesses extraordinary market insight or has obtained advance information. Due to multiple successful directional predictions, market observers have been closely monitoring “Hyperliquid Whale,” many of whose predictions were made before significant market-impacting events.

Despite rampant speculation regarding potential insider information, no verifiable evidence has been provided. This speculation primarily arises from the whale's unusually precise timing. Normal technical analysis or fundamental research struggles to explain how a large shorting position could be established ahead of unexpected events like Trump's tariff announcements. However, it is also possible that the trader has a deep understanding of macro-political and economic events, allowing them to anticipate market reactions.

On-chain analysis platforms like Arkham and Hypurrscan track the movements of the wallet, which typically involves nine-digit deposits through the Hyperliquid bridge, followed closely by high leverage positions. This operational pattern has become a trademark of this whale: large funds quickly entering Hyperliquid, immediately opening high leverage positions, usually just hours or days before significant market events.

Hyperliquid Whale Operation Features:

Extreme Leverage Preference: Typically uses 10-20 times leverage, pursuing high risk and high returns.

Macroeconomic Driven Strategy: Position establishment is often related to significant political and economic events.

Timing Precision: Establishing the correct directional Position multiple times before market turning points.

Large-scale operations: Single positions usually range from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars.

$4.8 billion investment portfolio reveals extreme concentration

According to data from Arkham Intelligence, the on-chain investment portfolio of Hyperliquid whales is worth approximately $4.81 billion, with most holdings in Bitcoin. The wallet currently controls 40,720 BTC, valued at about $4.51 billion, plus 30.084 million USDC and 3.08 million dollars worth of Ether (ETH). Smaller allocations include 108,359 0xBTC tokens valued at $20,490, 1,444 ARKM tokens worth $542, and a total of $140 from 50,005 LIMO tokens.

These numbers show that Bitcoin occupies a significant portion of the total value of the investment portfolio—over 93%. Such extreme concentration is extremely rare among institutional investors, and typically only individual investors who have a strong belief in a particular asset would adopt such an aggressive allocation. With a Bitcoin position of $4.51 billion, this Whale has become one of the most identifiable individual Bitcoin holders.

However, the current $121 million short position presents an interesting contrast to the $4.51 billion long spot position. This configuration suggests that the whale is not simply bearish on BTC, but is engaged in complex hedging or swing trading. Opening a short position while holding a large amount of spot may be to hedge against short-term downside risk or to arbitrage financing rates in the derivatives market.

The 300 million USD in USDC reserves provides the whale with ample liquidity to meet margin calls or to open new Margin Trading positions. This “well-stocked” state allows the whale to hold positions for the long term, without being forced to liquidate even if short-term price trends are unfavorable.

Current Position Risk and Market Significance

Although Hyperliquid whales have re-increased their short positions, the net worth of the wallet has grown by 1.27% in the past 24 hours due to a slight rebound in BTC to $111,000 and a subsequent drop to $110,700. This growth primarily comes from their large spot BTC holdings rather than derivatives positions.

Traders' stablecoin reserves remain sufficient, providing ample liquidity for new margin operations or collateral support. With nearly $301 million in USDC and $48 in USDT, whales maintain significant flexibility on-chain, which is why this address is consistently one of the most watched entities in the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

Traders on the entire Hyperliquid DEX are watching whether this new $121 million shorting marks the beginning of another major directional move—or a rare misstep for the whales that are most focused on the market. Currently, the price trend of Bitcoin is temporarily unfavorable for this whale based on the unrealized losses. If Bitcoin continues to rise to $115,000 or higher, the floating loss on this position will further expand.

However, based on the historical performance of the Whale, the market generally tends to trust its judgment. Many traders regard the direction of the Whale's Position as an important reference signal and even follow its operations. This “Whale Effect” may self-reinforce the Whale's predictions, and when a large number of traders follow the shorting, it may indeed drive down the price of Bitcoin.

Investor Focus Points:

Liquidation Price: $135,320: Bitcoin needs to rise by 22% to trigger liquidation.

Unrealized Loss of 953,900 USD: Current position is temporarily unfavorable

Financing Rate Subsidy of $13,688: The positive financing rate provides position cost compensation for shorting.

Historical success rate: In early October, shorting yielded a profit of 190 million USD, enhancing market confidence.