Did Justin Sun Spark XPL’s 200% Surge on Hyperliquid?

XPL rockets 200% on Hyperliquid—just another day in crypto land where billionaire tweets move markets faster than fundamentals.

The Justin Sun Effect

When the Tron founder's wallet shows activity, traders scramble. This time, a series of large XPL acquisitions on Hyperliquid preceded the explosive price move—because nothing says 'organic growth' like a whale making waves.

Hyperliquid's Momentum Play

The perpetuals platform becomes instant alpha territory whenever major players enter. Liquidity surges, leverage flows, and retail follows the smart money—until the music stops.

Pattern Recognition

Sun's track record with altcoin accumulations creates self-fulfilling prophecies. Traders don't wait for confirmation—they front-run the front-runners in this beautiful casino we call decentralized finance.

Of course the 200% pump had 'outside help'—in crypto, the house always wins, especially when the house is a billionaire with a Twitter account.

A $16 Million Profit in Under a Minute

According to Lookonchain, the wallet behind the trade partially closed its position in less than a minute, securing $14 – $16 million in profit within an hour. Speculation quickly arose that the wallet might be linked to TRON founder Justin Sun.

“Justin SUN just locked in $16M profit in under 60 seconds… Sent $XPL soaring to $1.80 (+200% in 2 minutes). And he’s STILL holding 15.2M $XPL ($10.2M) long,” one X user said.

Hyperliquid’s HLP Vault Caught in Volatility

While whales profited, Hyperliquid’s HLP vault earned around $47,000 in fees. However, the vault has also suffered before losing nearly $12 million during a similar JELLY token squeeze. This reflects the dual nature of liquidity provision: profitable in calm markets, but vulnerable to sudden wipeouts.

Hyperliquid previously refunded traders after the JELLY event and strengthened safeguards, yet both incidents trace back to a whale exploiting thin liquidity.

The Sequence of Events

The XPL surge began at 05:35, when wallet 0xb9c…6801e went long on millions of XPL, clearing the order book and squeezing out mostly 1x hedging shorts. Within minutes, $16 million in profit was realized.

Funding came from two sources: 4.99M USDC transferred from 0x5dE…c03c3 three hours earlier and 10.98M USDT cross-chained via DeBridge from 0xae0…97150.

The Justin Sun LINK stems from a historical transfer: years ago, this wallet sent ETH to an address associated with him. But there is no direct evidence. The wallet had been quietly building small XPL longs since August 24. At present, it still holds $8.58M in 1x XPL longs, with unrealized profits of about $620,000.

Traders Call It a “Massacre”

Star Platinum described the impact: “Dropped 16M USDC into Hyperliquid… bought 15.2M XPL, wiped the order book and sent the price from $0.60 to $1.80 (+200%). The biggest victim was wallet 0xc2cb…edf9 forced out of a 7M USDC short. In total, 16.6M USDC in shorts were destroyed.”

He added that XPL perp volume hit $161M in 24h (+311%), open interest collapsed 70%, and fees spiked to $7.7M (ATH). Yet hours later, XPL fell back to $0.60.

For some, the losses were devastating. One trader posted: “Just lost $185k USDC on @HyperliquidX $XPL pump. No other exchange effected, only Hyperliquid. Have been a massive fan of Hyperliquid, but this is pure manipulation. Added a ton of margin to stay SAFE and lost it all.”

Crypto trader Nonzee echoed: “Justin Sun just locked in $16M profit in under 60 seconds… Easily one of the craziest liquidation cascades ever seen on Hyperliquid.”

Lookonchain confirmed: “Whale 0xb9c0 deposited 16M $USDC… sending the price soaring to $1.8 and liquidating everyone. He then closed his position and made a profit of over $14M in less than an hour.”

Lessons for Retail Traders

The XPL event underscores the risks of trading in thinly liquid markets. When oversized orders hit thin markets, they can completely clear the order book and set off a chain reaction of liquidations, leaving smaller traders with no way to respond.

For whales, this episode was another big payday. For regular traders, it was an expensive reminder of how unforgiving these markets can be.

Also Read: Crypto Trader Moves $215M Bitcoin on Hyperliquid to Buy ETH