Bitcoin Surge Triggers $189M in Liquidations as Whales Ramp Up Short Positions

Over $189 million in cryptocurrency positions were liquidated within a 12-hour period as Bitcoin's price surged past $111,000, creating highly volatile trading conditions. Data from derivatives tracking platforms like Coinglass revealed that liquidation volumes were heavily concentrated on the decentralized perpetual exchange Hyperliquid, with more than $109 million in Bitcoin and $98 million in Ethereum positions liquidated from short contracts in the last day.

The price action, which began with a recovery late Sunday and extended into early Monday, saw Bitcoin reach $111,121 during Asian trading sessions, while Binance futures premium crossed $114,000. Market watchers on X described the volatility as unusually volatile and unsustainable, attributing it to thinned weekend liquidity and an unexpected surge in leveraged trading.

A pseudonymous trader, known as the Trump insider whale, deposited $30 million in USDC to Hyperliquid and opened a $76 million Bitcoin short position with 10x leverage. The trade, sized at 700 BTC and entered at $109,133 per coin, carries a liquidation price of $150,080. This whale had previously gained attention for earning $160 million from shorting Bitcoin ahead of Donald Trump's tariff announcement that triggered a market sell-off.

Other large traders added to the bearish sentiment. Lookonchain reported that address 0x8c58 deposited $5.38 million in USDC to open a 20x leveraged short on 1,500 Ethereum, valued at roughly $6.06 million, and was sitting on $39,978.12 in realized profit. Address 0x939f deposited $4.5 million in USDC over 20 hours to open a 40x cross-margin short on 394 Bitcoin worth $43.7 million, alongside shorts on Solana, XRP, and Ethereum. The Solana short was worth $11.38 million entered at $196.95, the XRP short targeted 1.3 million tokens at $2.57 each, and the Ethereum short was placed at $4,060 for $2.63 million.

Despite speculation about insider trading due to the timing of the whale's trades, legal commentators dismissed such allegations. A former SEC official explained that under US law, insider trading charges require the asset to be a security, but Bitcoin and Ethereum are recognized as commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act, falling outside SEC jurisdiction. Proving a fiduciary duty would be difficult, as government officials do not hold the same duties as corporate executives.