Another Hyperliquid whale switches to short BTC position

Another closely watched Hyperliquid whale suffered losses from its long position. The whale, recognized as one of the most experienced traders in the crypto space, switched to a short position with 20X leverage. 

Another Hyperliquid whale was pushed out of its long position following the downturn of BTC prices. The whale, recognized as @aguilatrades, is one of the oldest known participants in the BTC market. Unlike Wynn, this trader hardly publicizes its decisions and trades, and is not seeking popularity. The new wallet was identified just days ago and tagged by on-chain investigators. 

AguilaTrades(@AguilaTrades) has closed his $BTC long position with over $12.4M in losses — and flipped short.

Will he keep racking up losses, or is this short his shot at redemption?https://t.co/dSItG8OY3n pic.twitter.com/L04a0FyNtE

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) June 13, 2025

Hyperliquid whales have suffered recent liquidations 

On-chain data showed the trader closed a 40X leveraged long on BTC, absorbing $12.4M in losses. Soon after that, the whale opened a 20X leveraged short position valued at over $878K. 

At one point, AguilaTrades took a position opposite the risky trader James Wynn. The inflow of whale traders also attracted none other than Andrew Tate, who was quickly liquidated in the high-risk market. 

Recently, Wynn also got liquidated on multiple positions, also involving meme tokens like PEPE. Counter-trading Wynn was still a winning strategy, as in the case of one whale making $8M from shorting BTC just in time for its downturn.

The series of liquidations affected multiple whales that voted confidence in BTC or went long on ETH. BTC traded at $104,763, while ETH slid to the $2,500 range, breaking its attempt to regain $2,800. The market momentum turned, as greed trading shifted to a more neutral attitude. 

The liquidations for long whales coincided with the market-wide downturn and liquidation of long positions. Around $1B was liquidated from the crypto markets in the past 24 hours, with over $451M in liquidations for BTC pairs. 

Hyperliquid activity remains near peak levels

Despite this, Hyperliquid’s activity remained near peak levels, aiming to retain its activity from April and May. Hyperliquid usually became more active during times of clear direction for top coins, with whales taking high-profile positions. 

Following the recent peak activity, HYPE slid down to $40 after peaking at $43.76. The token sees additional buying pressure from whales, which may bring the price back toward $45. Whales are also using Hyperliquid to build positions on the native token, as well as currently hot meme tokens. Hyperliquid remains a high-risk venue, which has still produced whales with significant earnings, based on the DEX leaderboard.

The high-profile trades partially disguised the performance of whales that still managed to win in the current market. Hyperliquid still reflects the general exuberance of the market. However, there are skeptics that see the exchange as a venue for money-laundering, using liquidations to sway the asset price, while holding the reverse position on another exchange.

Additionally, Hyperliquid users are still expecting a potential second airdrop, keeping up activity in the hopes of receiving a higher payout. 

Hyperliquid remains the ninth-largest ecosystem by value locked, mostly due to the weight of the native HYPE token, but also for a small collection of memes. The ecosystem locks in $1.6B in value, with near-record inflows of USDC in the past days. The DEX still contains over $3.1B in USDC, breaking to a new high in the past week.