Hyperliquid whale or crypto criminal? $520M BTC short sparks debate

A $520 million Bitcoin shorting whale aka “Hyperliquid whale,” who appeared on Hyperliquid on March 16, has finally closed its positions. The whale’s huge agenda to short Bitcoin price left traders guessing and investors panicking. Now, on-chain investigator ZachXBT has suggested that a cybercriminal is possibly playing with stolen funds behind the scenes.

This massive short bet came in when Bitcoin was already struggling to stay above water. BTC price has been hovering around the $81K – $84K zone after recovering from a dump to $78K. The cumulative crypto market also hasn’t seen much action over the past week as investors’ sentiment remained in the “Fear” territory.

Did a cybercriminal just walk away with millions?

As per the data shared by SpotOnChain, the Hyperliquid whale also being called the “50x leverage whale” has closed all of its Bitcoin short positions. However, it earned more than $4 million in profits in just 3 days from these bets.

A group led by pseudonymous trader Cbb0fe in an X post stated that the shorted whale has closed the bets with around $9 million in profits. It added that their team might have lost the war, but they had fun after a very long time. To this, ZachXBT replied and revealed that the “Hyperliquid whale” is just a cybercriminal gambling with stolen funds.

It’s funny watching CT speculate on the “Hyperliquid whale” when in reality it’s just a cybercriminal gambling with stolen funds.

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) March 18, 2025

In the end, the on-chain investigator ruled out any connection between the address and the North Korean hacker unit, Lazarus Group. A user asked the investigator to name and shame if it’s a criminal grifter. ZachXBT mentioned it’s not enjoyable anymore to post investigations on the social media platform.

Hyperliquid whale’s stakes shake the market

The whale deposited 17.82 million USDC to Hyperliquid as a margin over the past 3 days. This was mainly done to short Bitcoin and that too with a 40x leverage. The liquidation price was set at $85,561 which was just 1.75% away from its entry price. The Hyperliquid whale took another gamble by reducing its BTC buy orders to just 4 orders of a total of around 557.67 Bitcoin (worth $35 million). These orders were set at a buying price of $63,757.

Traders immediately smelled blood and a group led by pseudonymous trader Cbb0fe rallied on X to push BTC higher and trigger the liquidation. Bitcoin even jumped 2.5% within minutes. But the whale wasn’t done yet and the traders group added funds to raise their liquidation price to avoid a wipeout. 

As of now, the whale has closed all of its perpetual positions, withdrawing 21.88 million USDC back to its wallet. After making the exit, the whale spent over 6 million USDC to buy 3,202 Ethereum and 3.28 million USDC to accumulate 1,040.

Bitcoin price is still testing the waters after the mega slide. BTC is trading at an average price of $82, 638 as of press time. Its 24-hour trading volume is marginally up to stand at $25 billion. Hyperliquid is no stranger to high-stakes bets. Just last week, a trader lost $4M on a $285 million ETH position, leading the exchange to cut leverage limits.

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