Key Takeaways
- A Hyperliquid whale had 28,716 ETH liquidated on Oct. 9 and still holds about 78,955 ETH in longs.
- The whale added 10 million USDC of margin 30 minutes after the wipeout and bought 9,580 ETH at $2,428.
- Its two ETH longs now face liquidation near $2,286 and $2,299, about 8% below ether’s current price.
The Position Before the Drop
The whale first surfaced on Oct. 7, when onchain trackers traced margin deposits into three Hyperliquid addresses. Together they held about $352 million in long positions, or bets that prices would rise, i.e. 1,140 BTC and 98,090 ETH. The trades had been opened about two weeks earlier at average prices of $82,205 for bitcoin and $2,604 for ether, and they were sitting on a $2.66 million paper profit.
That cushion, however, did not last because by the morning of Oct. 8, Lookonchain warned that the 98,089 ETH position, then worth $252.3 million, would be liquidated at $2,446.48 and $2,424.47. Those were the prices at which the exchange would force-close part of the trade to cover losses.
The Wipeout
Ether hit both levels overnight as its price fell to $2,420, and 28,720 ETH, about $69.5 million, was forcibly closed. The realized loss on that slice came to $4.48 million.
The whale was not alone as more than $1.19 billion in crypto positions were liquidated in 24 hours, with $1.05 billion of that coming from longs. ETH liquidations reached $350 million, more than bitcoin’s $304 million. Bitcoin.com News tracked the same flush as the bitcoin price dropped below $81,000.
Thirty Minutes Later
While most traders who get liquidated step back, this whale was unfazed and quickly reloaded. To elaborate, about 30 minutes after the forced sale, the whale deposited 10 million USDC in fresh margin and reopened a long of 9,580 ETH, worth $23.26 million, at $2,428. That was only a few dollars above where the old position had just been wiped out.
After the rebuy, EmberCN put the whale’s total longs at about $288 million with a $9.71 million paper loss. That total includes 78,950 ETH worth roughly $195 million, plus the 1,140 BTC.
The Position Right Now
Hyperliquid’s public data shows the ether bet split across two linked addresses. As of early Oct. 9 UTC:
- One address held about 39,964 ETH long at an average entry of $2,647, with liquidation near $2,286.
- The second address held about 38,991 ETH at $2,531, with liquidation near $2,299.
- Combined, the two ETH positions showed an unrealized loss of roughly $8 million, with about $19 million in account equity behind roughly $196 million in exposure.
That is leverage of around 13x to 14x per address and with ether trading near $2,500, the whale has roughly 8% of room before the next forced sale. The BTC leg, according to EmberCN, carries liquidation prices between $72,198 and $74,379, which leaves more breathing room as long as bitcoin’s price holds in the low $80,000s.
Why This One Is Worth Watching
Big leveraged books on Hyperliquid have become a market signal in their own right. On Oct. 6, Bitcoin.com News reported on linked Hyperliquid giants holding $1.58 billion in shorts against bitcoin and ether. This whale sits on the far side of that trade, and its liquidation levels are public for anyone to see.
