Hyperliquid Whale Aguila Trades Throws in the Towel: $15M BTC Short Squeeze Ends in Bloodbath
Another crypto whale learns the hard way—betting against Bitcoin is a rich man's sport with pauper's odds.
Hyperliquid's big player Aguila Trades just liquidated all short positions after a brutal $15 million mauling. The market chewed up another overleveraged gambler—but hey, at least they didn't double down like a certain hedge fund we all remember.
When will they learn? Bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered. Especially when tangling with BTC's volatility.
On-chain whales are under public microscope
On-chain data shows the position was finally closed, but the attempt to short BTC led to losses of $15.24M. Hyperliquid Leveraged trading remains highly risky, and some of the positions are seen as deliberate stunts. However, unlike James Wynn, Aguila Trades has not commented on the positions or plans for the future. The trader also has not tweeted since January, simply testing out the possibilities on Hyperliquid.
The trader then switched to a small 20X leverage long position, with just 0.55 BTC and an unrealized loss of under $1,000.
In the meantime, one of Wynn’s known addresses is only holding a minimal long BTC position, though there were claims of trading through new secret addresses.
Currently, BTC trades around $104,081, showing uncertainty over the developments between Israel and Iran, while awaiting the Fed interest rate decision.
BTC general open interest fell from $35B down to $32.7B as traders become more cautious. Leveraged positions are pressuring BTC in a tight range between $106,000 and $103,000, potentially leading to both short and long liquidations if the price is pushed to those levels.
Hyperliquid trading slowed down in May
Hyperliquid volumes seem to be slowing down, despite the efforts of high-profile whales. For the entire month of May, the DEX saw over $134B in total volumes, down from $248B during the peak activity in April.
The DEX also still lags behind Binance’s spot volumes as a benchmark. Hyperliquid still produced near-record fees above $2.48M on a daily basis, staying strong in the top 10 apps based on economic activity.
Total open interest is at over $7.91B, lower than the all-time peak, but showing signs of recovery. Over 50% of open positions are for BTC, with $1.5B for ETH and around $522M for SOL. Smaller meme tokens and the native HYPE token see around $1B in open interest, as the positions are more volatile.
So far, few whales have held public positions on memes, instead preferring to post high-profile trades on BTC.
The slower activity on the DEX also reflected on the native HYPE token. After a recent peak above $45, HYPE retreated to $38.21, reflecting the overall market uncertainty.
Despite this, three whale addresses were noticed accumulating HYPE. One of the whales bought in the $38 range, the second one accumulated above $39, and the last one continued to buy above $40. The token continues to share the profits of Hyperliquid while also awaiting a higher price range.
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