HYPE Short Seller Down $20.95M After Betting Against It At $28.79
A crypto trader who started betting against Hyperliquid‘s HYPE token when it traded at $28.79 is now sitting on a $20.95M loss, after the coin nearly tripled in price.
Key Takeaways
- Onchain tracker OnchainLens flagged a HYPE short opened at $28.79 that is now down $20.95M
- HYPE traded near $77 on Saturday, according to OnchainLens data on another big HYPE position
- On the other side, a trader known as Smartestmoney is up $52.76M on a long bet of 1.38M HYPE
- Abraxas Capital also holds a $77.6M HYPE short on Hyperliquid
A Short That Kept Getting Worse
OnchainLens flagged the position on X on Sunday, asking why the trader had stayed short on HYPE ever since it was $28.79. “He is now down $20.95M on that position,” the tracker wrote, adding that the trader might be the reverse of Smartestmoney.
A short is a bet that a price will fall. When the price rises instead, the losses keep growing, and there is no ceiling on how high they can go. OnchainLens did not say how big the position is or whether the trader has added margin to keep it open.
Also Read: Hyperliquid Strategies Files To Become A Futures Broker So Americans Can Trade Perps
Who Is Winning The HYPE Bet
On the other side, Smartestmoney holds a HYPE long. OnchainLens reported on Saturday that the wallet was up $52.76M on a long of 1.38M HYPE worth about $106.13M, opened 11 months ago, with a market price of $76.96 and a liquidation price of $71.08.
That liquidation price sits less than 8% below where HYPE traded, so the position could be liquidated by a sharp drop.
The Big Funds Are Still Short
Not every short is losing patience. OnchainLens said that Abraxas Capital holds $451.85M in open positions on Hyperliquid, almost all of them shorts, with an unrealized profit of $30.77M. HYPE is one of its largest bets at $77.6M, behind only Bitcoin.
Funds like Abraxas often short a token to hedge coins they hold elsewhere, so a big short does not always mean a bet on a crash.
What To Watch Next
The key level is $71.08, the liquidation price for the big HYPE long. A move toward it would hand the shorts a lifeline, while a push higher would deepen the $20.95M hole for the trader who shorted at $28.79.
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