A crypto derivatives trader known for making $192 million during last week’s market collapse returned with two short bets on Sunday. Blockchain data showed trader 0xb317 opened a $163 million leveraged short on Bitcoin through the decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid.
According to on-chain data and trading dashboard Hyperscan, the trader initiated a 20x cross-margin perpetual short position worth approximately $209 million, betting on Bitcoin’s decline.
The position has an entry price of $116,812, with a current market price near $114,679 at the time of capture. The trader’s profit and loss (PnL) was around $3.88 million, showing they had a successful start and could be in for another profitable round.
Liquidation set for $121,000, losses seem unlikely
0xb317 would face liquidation if Bitcoin’s price rises to about $121,000. The same entity reportedly earned $192 million in profits last Friday after opening a major short position just 30 minutes before US President Donald Trump slapped China with 100% tariffs, which caused heavy sell-offs in the market. The timing of the trade has led the crypto community to believe the trader is an insider.
Per data compiled from Hyperliquid’s public leaderboard, over 1,000 wallets were completely liquidated, wiping out their entire balances. In total, more than 6,300 accounts were left in the red, with combined losses estimated at $1.23 billion.
Of those, 205 wallets lost over $1 million each, while more than 1,070 wallets suffered losses exceeding $100,000. Short bets are by far the most profits any trader has taken from the perpetual markets in the last three days.
Some traders on X have been referring to the entity as an “insider whale”, accusing them of exploiting privileged information about tariffs.
“The crazy part is that he shorted another nine figures worth of BTC and ETH minutes before the cascade happened,” one observer wrote. “This was just publicly on Hyperliquid, so imagine what he did on CEXs or elsewhere. I’m pretty sure this guy played a huge role in what happened today.”
Others in the community have jokingly suggested it was someone in the Trump administration or part of the US President’s family. “The Hyperliquid accounts involved were only created today. We see u Barron,” wrote user Crypto_ROD, implying that the fifth and youngest son of Donald Trump could somehow be behind the trades.
Ethereum whales also moved large sums
Alongside Bitcoin shorting activity, blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported that another crypto whale using the address 0x3952 continued offloading large quantities of Ether after the market crash. The account sold 12,010 ETH, worth about $45.16 million, to take profits on Sunday evening.
Lookonchain reported that the whale withdrew 86,000 ETH (about $260.3 million) from Binance between June 22 and August 12 at an average price of $3,027.
Since mid-September, the address has reportedly sold 27,020 ETH at an average price of $4,218, netting around $114 million and leaving roughly 58,980 ETH ($240 million) still in holdings. 0x3952’s total realized profit from these trades amounts to $73.6 million.
Binance refutes accusations of aiding liquidations
During last week’s “day of red” on decentralized and centralized markets, some traders accused Binance of contributing to the meltdown. Chatter on social platforms insinuated that Binance’s order books and market-making systems malfunctioned during the sell-off and prevented stop-loss orders from executing.
Several tokens, including USDE, BNSOL, and WBETH, were said to have temporarily depegged or crashed to zero, leading to liquidations en masse.
Binance later issued a statement denying any systemic failure, adding that the disruption was due to a “display issue”, not a collapse of its trading infrastructure. In an update to users, Binance confirmed that its futures and spot matching engines, alongside API trading systems, “were operational” throughout the event.
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