TL;DR
- Massive Loss: The Hyperliquid Trader lost nearly $24 million as a long‑held ether short was liquidated in 12 seconds.
- Rapid Liquidation: Forced sales across five chunks pushed ether higher, worsening losses and emptying the wallet.
- Market Surge: A broader crypto rally triggered $2.74 billion in short liquidations, including a $48.8 million Bitcoin wipeout.
The crypto market’s sharp Thursday surge delivered a brutal blow to a well‑known short seller, with the wallet “pension-usdt.eth” losing nearly $24 million in a rapid ether liquidation. The position, held for more than two months, unraveled in just 12 seconds as prices jumped across major tokens, erasing half of the trader’s lifetime profits.
A Sudden Collapse After Months of Wins
For much of the year, the Hyperliquid Trader had been one of the market’s standout short sellers, accumulating roughly $49 million in gains from a series of well‑timed bearish bets. Those included nearly $6 million from a 60,000 ETH short closed in June, $3.6 million from a 1,400 BTC short that same month, and $1.7 million from another Bitcoin short in March.
But Thursday’s liquidation flipped the narrative. Hyperliquid’s records show the forced unwind began at 04:51:03 and ended at 04:51:15, executed in five separate sales: 9,989 ETH at $2,193, then 20,698 at $2,209, followed by 15,830 at $2,214, and 1,871 at $2,236. When buyers disappeared for the final 1,417 ETH, Hyperliquid absorbed the remainder into its insurance fund.
Ether climbed $43 during those seconds, with the trader’s own forced buying contributing to the spike. Every dollar added to the price made closing the remaining chunks more expensive, accelerating the losses.
Market Surge Turns the Tables
The position had been held for 1,445 hours, a stretch when Bitcoin hovered below $65,000, and shorting appeared straightforward. That changed after Wednesday’s Treasury buyback announcement, which sent ether up 18% in 24 hours and pushed Bitcoin from $64,000 to nearly $70,000.
By Thursday morning, the Hyperliquid Trader’s account was emptied. The platform’s leaderboard shows the wallet, trading under the display name “Pension Fund,” now holding just $35.61 and down 100% over 30 days, with $16.48 million in losses against $111.76 million in traded volume. The Hyperliquid Trader was not the day’s largest casualty. A separate Bitcoin position lost $48.8 million on Hyperliquid, part of a massive $2.74 billion in short liquidations across the market, the biggest wave of forced closures since 2021.
