Hyperliquid Trader's $1 Billion Bitcoin Bet Seesaws Amid Price Volatility

An investor’s $1 billion Bitcoin bet on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid swung massively on Wednesday, with their account surviving a $32 million drawdown on paper, as the asset’s price ping-ponged on a volatile day of trading. 

The user, controlling a wallet starting with “0x507,” saw their position whipsaw between a profit and a loss, hours after topping off the 40x leveraged long position, according to blockchain explorer HypurrScan. Bitcoin rose to a record $109,500 earlier in the day. 

The bet anticipated that the original cryptocurrency’s price would continue to rise, and after adding funds to the leveraged position, the user’s average entry price stood at $108,000.

Bitcoin was recently changing hands around $108,300, showing a 1.5% increase over the past day, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. The user’s liquidation price, at which their trade would be forcibly closed, stood around $103,800, as of this writing.

At one point, “0x507” had a daily gain of $17 million on paper. However, those winnings were erased as Bitcoin’s price retraced from its new all-time high, leaving them with a temporary loss of $15.6 million, according to HyperDash, another blockchain explorer. 

The multi-million dollar zigzag took place in less than two hours. And the user still had an all-time profit of $59 million across their activity on the decentralized exchange.

On X, formerly Twitter, the account named SigmaSquared tied “0x507” to the account named JamesWynnReal, who describes themselves as a “high risk leverage trader” and “meme coin maxi” on the social media platform.

“He did it fellas,” SigmaSquared wrote. “First position [on Hyperliquid] to exceed $1B."

SigmaSquared and JamesWynnReal did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.

It appears, based on JamesWynnReal’s X posts, that the trade began as a $400,000 bet around five days ago. They added funds to the position several times, according to SigmaSquared.

Hyperliquid uses its own high-speed blockchain, built upon the Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum, and user activity can become a public spectacle. That includes several massive bets that have soured on the exchange, occasionally leaving users with losses, or forcing the decentralized exchange’s validators to quickly collaborate on necessary changes.

Bitcoin Blasts to New All-Time High Price Above $109,000

Bitcoin soared to a new record price above $109,000 on Wednesday morning, pushed by tailwinds that have sent cryptocurrencies and other risk-on assets higher over the past two months. The largest crypto by market capitalization was recently trading at $109,378 at crypto exchange Coinbase, up 4.5% over the past 24 hours. According to Coinbase, BTC topped out at $109,500 before cooling. Bitcoin is now up nearly 25% over the last month. "Bitcoin is pushing toward new highs with strong tailwinds beh...

“0x507” first engaged with Hyperliquid around two months ago, depositing around $3 million worth of stablecoins into the decentralized exchange, according to HypurrScan. Over that period of time, the user has conducted 32 trades, per HyperDash.

According to HyperDash, “0x507” earned $4.8 million and $6.8 million trading the Solana-based meme coins Fartcoin and Official Trump, respectively, earlier this month. The user’s biggest loss also took place less than two weeks ago, losing $912,000 on a Bitcoin trade.

Edited by James Rubin