A Whale Just Opened $48 Million in Shorts Against Bitcoin, Solana and Ethereum

Anatomy of the Bet

Onchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported that the wallet, labeled 0xaeaa, moved 6.68 million USDC onto Hyperliquid before opening the shorts. The breakdown is heavily weighted toward bitcoin, i.e. 430.64 BTC worth $27.46 million, 181,245 SOL worth $13.24 million, and 4,280 ETH worth $7.37 million. A second tracker, ai_9684xtpa, independently flagged the same position, lending weight to the figures.

A short position profits when prices fall, and this one is sized to pay off if the broader market turns lower. Because the trader is using 20x leverage, every 1% move in the underlying assets swings the position by roughly 20%, magnifying both potential gains and the risk of being wiped out.

Hyperliquid, being designed specifically for perpetual futures (leverage-heavy contracts), has become a dominant venue for high-stakes onchain bets in less than a year. The platform lets traders open large directional positions with relatively little collateral, leverage that can result in major liquidations within a matter of seconds.

At the time the above-mentioned position was opened, bitcoin was trading near $63,800, and thus, for the 20x short to survive, prices need to keep drifting lower or at least hold flat. Any near-term rally puts the trader under immediate pressure.

A Crowded Short

The bet joins a long line of headline-grabbing shorts on the platform, given Bitcoin.com News has recently chronicled traders repeatedly dancing on the edge of liquidation, including one whose 40x bitcoin short faced a $20.3 million wipeout with a liquidation price of $82,236, and another whose $46.5 million short backfired as rival whales accumulated.

Such concentrated, leveraged positions can amplify the overarching macro volatility, since a wave of forced liquidations often accelerates the very move a trader is betting against, or sharply against them. That said, whether wallet ‘0xaeaa’ is positioned early or about to be squeezed will depend on the market’s next leg.

With $48 million riding on a 20x short across three of the largest crypto assets, the margin for error is thin, and onchain analysts will continue to keep a close eye on the address (either to see if it adds to the trade or if a quick exit is made).