12-Second ETH Move Costs Crypto Trader $24M After $49M Shorting Gains
- A Hyperliquid trader using the wallet “pension-usdt.eth” lost nearly $24 million after a 50,000 ETH short was liquidated during Ether’s rapid rally, with the position closed through five separate orders.
- The trader had maintained the bearish position for more than two months before Thursday’s market-wide crypto surge triggered the liquidation.
- Before this setback, the wallet had built a strong record of short trades, earning approximately $49 million from bets against cryptocurrencies.
- Previous profitable positions 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 another $1.7 million from a Bitcoin short in March.
- The latest loss wiped out about half of the wallet’s earlier short-selling profits. Hyperliquid data shows the liquidation occurred in only 12 seconds, between 04:51:03 and 04:51:15.
- The first order closed 9,989 ETH at $2,193, followed by 20,698 ETH at $2,209, 15,830 ETH at $2,214 and 1,871 ETH at $2,236.
- With 1,417 ETH still remaining, the position could not find enough buyers, so Hyperliquid absorbed the balance through its liquidity fund.
- Ether gained $43 during the 12-second unwind. Forced buying from the liquidated position helped push ETH higher, while each price increase made it more expensive to close the remaining short.
- The trade had remained open for 1,445 hours, or just over two months, during a period when Bitcoin mostly traded below $65,000 and bearish positioning appeared relatively favorable.
- That environment shifted after Wednesday’s Treasury announcement on expanding bond buybacks. Ether then climbed 18% in 24 hours, while Bitcoin rallied from around $64,000 to almost $70,000.
- Hyperliquid’s leaderboard lists the account under the display name “Penision Fund.” The wallet was left with just $35.61 and had lost 100% over the previous 30 days, recording $16.48 million in losses against $111.76 million in trading volume.
- The trader was not the day’s largest individual liquidation. That was a $48.8 million Bitcoin position, also on Hyperliquid.
- Across the broader crypto market, short positions worth approximately $2.74 billion were liquidated over 24 hours, marking the biggest wave of forced short closures in records dating back to 2021.
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