Hyperliquid opens the door to a crowd-led whale hunt, says 10x Research

Hyperliquid’s transparency has made a “people’s hunt” for leveraged whales—aimed at forcing liquidations—possible, 10x Research noted.

HYPE Reloaded: Is the Dip a New Entry Point?

?1-14) March has historically been a turning point for asset prices, and last year was no exception. While consensus remained bullish, we turned cautious in March 2024, correctly anticipating the start of an eight-month consolidation… pic.twitter.com/2THlqUSIAe

— 10x Research (@10x_Research) March 17, 2025

The firm believes the initiative could spark a new trend.

Hyperliquid’s monitoring option lets the public track whale activity and analyse their liquidation levels.

Such transparency enables coordinated action by groups of traders, who can deliberately target those stop levels.

10x Research sees a potential shift in the balance of power among the platform’s client categories. But the extent of the phenomenon remains to be seen, the analysts added.

They drew parallels with the Reddit WallStreetBets community’s clash with Wall Street hedge funds over GameStop.

A showdown with a whale

10x Research’s comment followed a proposal by user CBB to liquidate a whale through collective action.

lmfao we might have some ammo coming in https://t.co/GS68ksb4aC pic.twitter.com/ExYHfg36M0

— CBB (bera era) (@Cbb0fe) March 16, 2025

The target was a trader who on March 16 opened a 4442 BTC short with 40x leverage at $84,043, with a liquidation level at $85,592.

Analysts observed that the call was heeded — within minutes, bitcoin jumped 2.5%, helped by those who responded to CBB’s message.

To avoid that outcome, the whale increased the position to 6210 BTC (~$524m).

(Un)happy ending

On March 18 the large trader closed the short voluntarily, locking in a profit of roughly ~$7.9m.

He has closed all his short positions.??https://t.co/q5hI0vx0ZX https://t.co/cRVjcEeR3X pic.twitter.com/zv8Z5tOAGi

— CoinGlass (@coinglass_com) March 18, 2025

Spot prices never reached the position’s $85,556.99 liquidation level.

The role of whales

CryptoQuant highlighted whales’ central role in the current market cycle. Analysts found “unprecedented accumulation” by addresses with balances of at least 1,000 BTC that have held for more than six months.

This, they said, signals strong conviction among large players in the asset’s long-term prospects.

By their estimates, since November 2024 those wallets have collectively acquired more than 1m BTC. In recent weeks accumulation has accelerated — so far in March the figure has risen by over 200,000 BTC.

CryptoQuant sees this trend as rising participation by institutional investors and wealthy individuals.

Earlier, the firm reported an increase in the share of coins held for three to six months. In their view, this reflects the accumulation dynamics seen during the prolonged downturn in the summer of 2024.

Earlier, Matrixport forecast the end of the correction for the first cryptocurrency in March–April. Glassnode suggested that the asset’s redistribution phase may drag on.