Hyperliquid’s XPL pre-contracts surged from $0.6 to $1.8 in just 5 minutes, fueling speculation of market manipulation as a few whales reportedly pocketed over $46M after massive short liquidations on the derivatives platform.
Summary
- Four main wallets profited a combined total of $46M from the August 27 Hyperliquid’s XPL pre-contracts 200% price spike.
- The spike was confined to Hyperliquid, with centralized exchanges Binance and Bitget showing no corresponding price movements due to Hyperliquid’s single internal oracle design.
- 0xb9c…6801e wallet is believed to be associated with Justin Sun due to a historical ETH transfer to an address linked to him 5 years ago, though no direct evidence connects him to the Hyperliquid’s XPL incident.
On August 27, yet another market manipulation event unfolded on the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid, as the token XPL experienced an extreme and rapid price spike. Beginning at approximately 5:50 AM Beijing time, the XPL price surged from around $0.6 to a peak of $1.8 within just five minutes, triggering a cascade of short position liquidations (mostly 1x hedge orders), before quickly falling back to around $0.06.
Analysis of blockchain data by @ai_9684xtpa indicates that four main wallets participated in the activity, collectively profiting approximately $46.1 million. The wallet starting with 0xb9c…6801e acted as the primary driver, depositing $16 million USD Coin (USDC) and placing aggressive buy orders that drove the XPL price sharply upward. This wallet closed a portion of its positions shortly after the peak, realizing $16 million in profit, while still holding an $8.28 million contract position in XPL.
Three additional wallets — 0xe417…, 0x006…, and 0x894… — ended up profiting from the resulting liquidations. These wallets had accumulated long positions in XPL in the days prior and began closing them near the short-term price peak, securing the remainder of the profits. 0xe417… and 0x006… share the same funding source. 0x894… is relatively independent, funded via Binance, and may have profited by coincidence.
Hyperliquid’s XPL price spike confined to Hyperliquid DEX by single-oracle dependency
Interestingly, the extreme price fluctuation resulting from 0xb9c’s longs occurred exclusively on Hyperliquid. Centralized exchanges Binance and Bitget, which also listed XPL pre-contracts, did not experience corresponding price changes.
Chinese crypto media BlockBeats, posting on Binance Square, attributed this to the design of Hyperliquid’s platform, which relies on a single internal oracle for price determination. Unlike centralized exchanges that aggregate data from multiple sources to stabilize prices, Hyperliquid’s oracle is highly sensitive to concentrated trades. As a result, aggressive buys by a few whales were sufficient to drive the local price up dramatically, without affecting the broader market.
Who is behind this?
While the identities behind the wallets remain unconfirmed, some community speculation has emerged due to historical on-chain activity.
Analyst @ai_9684xtpa noted that the 0xb9c wallet had previously transferred Ethereum (ETH) to an address associated with Justin Sun 5 years ago. However, there is no direct evidence linking him to this event.
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