Notorious MELANIA trader is back on Hyperliquid, only to get liquidated

A trader known as @qwatio has become the latest viral account on Hyperliquid, culminating in a new round of counter-trading and liquidations. Previously, ZachXBT investigated the whale for aggressively trading MELANIA and other tokens. 

One of the high-profile whales, previously identified by ZachXBT as William Parker, is back with high-profile positions on Hyperliquid. The whale is also known for his social media handle @qwatio, with no live posts after deleting most of its content since 2015. 

The whale joined the league of James Wynn and Aguila Trades in a new trend of high-profile traders in recent weeks. 

MELANIA has a track record

The same trader has returned multiple times with new wallets, causing havoc on Hyperliquid with some of the most destructive trades, especially linked to draining liquidity pools. @qwatio’s trading practice informed a subsequent deliberate manipulation of the JELLY token, again with the goal of draining the liquidity pool. 

In the past few months, @qwatio used four known addresses. Three of the previous ones are inactive, with no new positions. 

The latest known address is $436K underwater, based on its short positions for BTC and ETH. This time around, the positions had a notional value above $210M, with no clear signs of deliberate counter-trading.

The unrealized profit and loss may change, though the trader has shown readiness to keep the positions. On-chain data shows he posted $4.5M USDC collateral to extend his short positions and avoid liquidation.

The whale is now considered to be in gambling mode, after six liquidations in the past three days. 

Hyperliquid becomes top crypto summer venue

The stories of high-profile whales added to Hyperliquid’s fame as the go-to chain for derivative trading. It often competes with some of the biggest centralized exchanges in terms of volumes and open interest. In June, Hyperliquid activity slowed down a bit, with open interest of $7.2B. 

Hyperliquid remains a leader in 24-hour fees, surpassing Ethereum, Solana and other top apps and networks. Based on Artemis data, Hyperliquid generated $2.1M in fees. 

The perpetual futures DEX also carries $6.8B in 24-hour volumes, with over 500K daily active users. The market shows a mix of organic traffic and activity that aims to tap an eventual second airdrop of HYPE tokens, based on user activity. 

Since its launch, Hyperliquid has allowed whales to withdraw over $81B, with over $46B in liquidated positions. 

As of June 2025, Hyperliquid still carried over 60% of decentralized perpetual swaps traffic. The success of the platform inspired other attempts to copy its success. The perps DEX uses more than 64% of all USDC on Arbitrum for its liquidity purposes. The DEX drew in a total of $3.56B USDC, with around $2.91B remaining as available liquidity. 

HYPE took a step back in June, after peaking above $45. HYPE retains open interest above $1.5B, of which $1.1B is on the Hyperliquid exchange. Currently, short positions make up about 38% of the open interest, on expectations of further correction from peak prices.

The native token currently trades around $37 and is closely watched for a rebound, based on recent whale activity. HYPE rallied after the inclusion of high-profile trades, which some consider deliberate attempts to draw attention to Hyperliquid.