- A crypto trader used Hyperliquid to make a highly leveraged wager in a down market.
- The timing was perfect... maybe too perfect, investors said.
- The investor could have made more.
On Sunday, the top cryptocurrencies were reeling.
Squeezed by memecoin scandals, a record-breaking, $1.5 billion hack, and a looming US-led trade war, Bitcoin’s post-election rally had been nearly “vapourised.”
Yet one trader, amid the gloom, decided it was the ideal moment to make a massive bet on Bitcoin and Ether.
The trader, whom DL News was unable to identify or reach for comment, opened a $200 million position on Bitcoin and Ether by leveraging $4 million in crypto.
Had the trader’s bet gone the wrong way, they would have been on the hook for the entire $4 million they had put up.
But it didn’t go the wrong way. Indeed, the trade went very much the right way.
Boldest trade
The reason? On Sunday morning Eastern Time, Trump posted on Truth Social that a national crypto stockpile which he had proposed on the campaign trail last year would include Solana, Cardano, and Ripple’s XRP token.
The surprise inclusion of the altcoins sent crypto markets soaring.
“This may be the boldest single trade I have ever witnessed,” one Bitcoin developer said on X, before adding, with apparent sarcasm," “Surely, just luck.”
The trader was using Hyperliquid, a blockchain-based crypto exchange that lets users borrow heavily — 50 times, in this case — to magnify their wagers.
Even as Bitcoin and Ether reversed declines and rebounded, the trader had already closed their position, according to a review of their trading activity on Hyperliquid.
The trader’s cumulative gains on Hyperliquid jumped from $3.2 million to $10.2 million, according to analytics platform HyperDash.
Blockchain sleuths often scan transactions after market-moving developments to determine who may have profited off insider information.
Trump boys?
The trader’s winning bet appeared to have been timed so well, hawk-eyed observers quickly took notice.
Some speculated on social media, without evidence, that Barron or Eric Trump — two of the president’s children, both involved in family crypto ventures — were behind the trade.
Others had different take: maybe it wasn’t that impressive after all.
Just after noon on Sunday, Trump posted again about the crypto reserve, writing, “And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be the heart of the Reserve. I also love Bitcoin and Ethereum!”
Bitcoin would top out at $94,770 on Sunday, an 11% increase from its pre-announcement price. Ether would peak at $2,542, a 16% jump.
Had the trader waited until Trump’s second post, they would have earned millions more.
“Just a degenerate gambler, no more,” Bitcoin influencer Dylan LeClair wrote on X.
Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi reporter. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.