Mystery Whale Opens $163M Bitcoin Short After $192M Profit

A huge crypto derivatives speculator that recently made $192 million betting on the crypto market with a curiously timed short has opened up more bearish positions. 

The whale trader (0xb317) on the Hyperliquid decentralized derivatives exchange has opened a $163 million leveraged perpetual contract to short Bitcoin (BTC) on Sunday.

The 10x leveraged position is currently valued at $3.5 million in profit, but it will be liquidated if BTC reaches $125,500.

The entity attracted attention from the crypto community after opening a short position just 30 minutes before Trump’s tariff announcement on Friday, which sent the crypto market plummeting but netted them $192 million in profits.

“Insider whale” blamed 

The entity is being labeled an “insider whale” by the crypto community due to the uncanny timing of the trades, opening minutes before a major announcement.

Some theorize that the whale itself caused a massive leverage flush that crushed crypto markets over the weekend.

“The crazy part is that he shorted another nine figures worth of BTC and ETH minutes before the cascade happened,” said observer “MLM,” who added, “And this was just publicly on Hyperliquid, imagine what he did on CEXs or elsewhere.”

“I’m pretty sure this guy played a huge role in what happened today.”

Related: Crypto derivatives funding rates drop to 3-year lows: A bullish sign?

Over 250 wallets lost millionaire status on Hyperliquid since Friday’s crash, reported HyperTracker on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, another more bullish trader opened a 40x leveraged $11 million long position in Bitcoin. 

“Crypto people are realizing today what it means to have unregulated markets: Insider trading, corruption, crime, and zero accountability,” commented SWP Berlin researcher Janis Kluge. 

Binance denies role in market meltdown

It has also been suggested that Binance may have played a role in the meltdown, as its own order books and market maker reportedly failed, stop-losses didn’t execute, traders were liquidated en masse, and several tokens reportedly depegged or crashed to zero. 

However, the exchange issued an update to users claiming that there was no crash because it was a “display issue.” 

“We are aware of speculation in the market regarding the causes of this event, with some focusing on the role of the Binance platform,” the company stated on Sunday. 

It confirmed that during the event, the core futures and spot matching engines and API trading “remained operational.”

Binance denied that the depegging of USDE, BNSOL and WBETH caused the market crash, but offered around $283 million in compensation to traders holding these assets as collateral who were liquidated.

The Binance exchange’s native token, BNB (BNB), has recovered strongly, surging 14% over the past 24 hours to surpass $1,300 again. 

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