OG HYPE Whale Makes Major Move: Shifts Profits from Hyperliquid to Aster Protocol

Crypto whale makes strategic exit from Hyperliquid—dumping profits into emerging rival Aster Protocol.

The Migration Pattern

When big money moves, the market listens. This OG player just executed a textbook profit-rotation play—cashing out of established positions to chase alpha in newer protocols. The timing suggests either insider confidence in Aster's tech or calculated sector rotation.

Whale Watching Implications

Tracking these migrations gives smaller investors a roadmap. Where whales go, liquidity often follows—creating those precious early momentum cycles that define crypto seasons. But remember: by the time retail spots the pattern, the real gains might already be baked in.

Another day, another 'strategic reallocation'—because what's finance without rebranding profit-taking as visionary portfolio management?

$89 million in profits realized after unstaking

After staking HYPE for 9 months, the whale made an order to unstake the coins on September 9, which was approved 21 hours later. The investor received the assets and liquidated a portion of the holdings.

A whale who bought and staked 2M $HYPE(cost $17.4M, now worth $107.2M) 9 months ago at $8.68 avg has now unstaked it and is very likely to sell for profits!

9 months ago, this whale deposited 17.4M $USDC into #Hyperliquid through 3 wallets and bought 2M $HYPE at $8.68 avg, then… pic.twitter.com/1DTkfWSqrQ

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 16, 2025

Lookonchain reported on September 16 that the whale had deposited $17.4 million USDC into Hyperliquid through three wallets. The funds were used to acquire 2 million HYPE tokens, which were later distributed to nine different wallets for staking. Some of the addresses involved included 0x382f1…ba11d7, 0xa08ae97…c4abcc, and 0xa47e…6d0bdb8.

According to Arkham Intelligence data, they offloaded chunks of HYPE and the resulting stablecoin proceeds on Tuesday towards Aster. The initial unstaked coins and liquidation netted realized profits of roughly $89.8 million, but only $9 million was used to acquire positions on the DEX token.

Aster was bought in at least three transactions, including a $3.41 million transfer, $2.41 million swap, and a $3.99 million exchange, all routed into new addresses. 

The whale is not the only trader pushing capital into Aster. Lookonchain also identified a newly created wallet, 0x5bd4, that purchased 6.72 million Aster tokens worth nearly $14 million from Bybit on Tuesday, which has now grown to over $15 million after a small jump in the coin’s price.

Infamous crypto trader James Wynn’s account was also spotted exchanging referral rewards totaling $8,032.5 to go long on Aster and shorting HYPE. 

James Wynn(@JamesWynnReal) claimed $8,032.5 in referral rewards and went long on $ASTER while shorting $HYPE.https://t.co/FX6sISWuDP pic.twitter.com/FK1CAOA3yz

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 24, 2025

According to Hyperscan on-chain records, Wynn’s address 0x5078C…ce56BeDb6 currently has a $37,000 long position on Aster.

Investors flock into Aster as price momentum continues

After slumping earlier in the week, Aster surged more than 35% in the past 24 hours, trading above $2.20 at press time. The token’s average spot price hovered slightly above $1.20 on September 17 before breaking resistance levels in subsequent trading sessions. 

The spot and perpetual trading decentralized exchange coin is one of the most discussed projects in the market, aided by the support of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao. 

“What people don’t get yet is that Aster is likely CZ’s insurance plan for Binance. Aster won’t stay a perp dex; it’ll likely have many of the functions of Binance cex. It already even has an ‘Earn’ category,” said cross-chain LAYER 1 network Glue Net founder Ogle.

Since its token generation event in early September, ASTER has surged by more than 2,615%, which has garnered attention from influencers like YouTuber Mr Beast.

As Cryptopolitan reported last weekend, the most subscribed YouTuber poured over $114,000 into the new project. However, at around 9:00 PM UTC Tuesday, Mr Beast sold $124,000 worth of Aster, which is almost half of the coins he had acquired last Friday, according to Arkham data.

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