Hyperliquid whale “0xa523” has lost over $40 million over the last month alone, according to Lookonchain data tracked on the analytics platform Hyperdash. This loss makes the anonymous trader the biggest loser on the platform, dwarfing losses from other traders like James Wynn, GSR Markets, and Aguila Trades.
A string of high-leverage missteps
Lookonchain reports that 0xa523’s losses are a result of a series of high-leverage mistakes, which have come fast considering that the wallet address is new.
On August 15, Lookonchain reported that the wallet deposited 23.52M $USDC into Hyperliquid to buy 466,421 $HYPE ($21.5M) and 2.16M $Fartcoin ($2.12M) in just 7 hours. Two days later, the whale added some $19.38M USDC to buy more $HYPE.
In just a month, 0xa523 had lost $40 million. This started when he sold 886,287 $HYPE ($39.66M) at a loss. Based on Lookonchain’s calculations, holding the asset would have translated to a gain of nearly $9 million as of the reporting date.
This transaction was meant to fund an $ETH long that lost over $35 million. The trader then switched to an $ETH short, only to end up losing another $614K. Based on data from Hyperdash, his current loss stands at over $43 million, with an unrealised loss of over $1.9 million.
Source: Hyperdash
The whale is currently running a $68 million short position with a 36.28x leverage.
James Wynn has lost over $23M in the past month
0xa523’s loss tops that of James Wynn, who has lost over $23 million in the past month.
Wynn joined Hyperliquid in 2023 after huge success in meme coins, and he accumulated $46.5 million in profit in less than two months. That figure peaked at $87 million in May, but he would soon make headlines for losing it all.
In a high-profile bet in late May, Wynn took a massive 40x leveraged position, which had a notional value of over $1.25 billion at its peak. However, this ended up being liquidated when the price of Bitcoin dipped below 105k, wiping away 949 BTC ($99.6M) from his account.
In a now-deleted post, Wynn said, “I do not follow proper risk management, nor do I claim to be a professional; if anything, I claim to be lucky. I’m effectively gambling, and I stand to lose everything. I strongly advise people against what I’m doing.”
But soon after that, he opened up yet another position and ended up losing $25 million in June when trying to improve the viability of his other bets. At that time, he claimed he was being targeted by market makers who wanted to liquidate his bets.
He later admitted, “…Anyways, with all this new attention the trading spiralled out of control. I was basically gambling and Jubitoing to chase back the gains I had lost as well as not looking like an idiot for making $100m and then losing it. I got greedy. I wasn’t taking the numbers on the screen seriously.”
After depositing and losing $1.28 million in early July, Wynn deactivated his X account, JamesWynnReal. Before that, he had changed his profile bio to “broke”.
He would reappear a few days later, but his losses continued into August, losing over $6 million in just two days. The series of losses put his total monthly loss at $23.6 million, when 0x502 surpassed him as the biggest loser on the platform.
GSR Markets $4M loss in 24 hours
On the same day that 0x502 hit the $40M mark, Lookonchain reported that GSR Markets, a well-known name in the crypto market, hit losses of $4M on Hyperliquid in just 24 hours.
The Hyperliquid wallet linked to the trading company had been hedging a short position on Launch Coin on Believe ($LAUNCHCOIN). However, the coin had a sudden 60% surge, which led to the liquidation of the firm’s position.
The event also affected other positions the trader held, wiping out the account.
“The liquidation of #GSRMarkets’ short position triggered a domino effect, wiping out their other shorts on $MNT, $POPCAT, $LINK, and $LDO, and zeroing out the account,” Lookonchain posted.
Andrew Tate’s $700k Plus Losses on Hyperliquid
Another account that has attracted significant attention on Hyperliquid over the last month is controversial influencer Andrew Tate.
This was after he opened a long position on World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a token linked to the Trump family. Tate’s bet came one day after WLFI started trading on major exchanges, ending months of private-only sales. However, the position was liquidated just 6 hours later, wiping out $67,500 of his investment.
This came after the token’s price crashed from $0.331 to $0.210 within a few hours, resulting from the unlocking of 24.6 billion new tokens. The token would later start recovering, but Tate’s loss came during the high volatility period.
The $67,500 loss is just the latest of Andrew Tate’s losses on Hyperliquid. Lookonchain data at that time showed that out of the 80 bets he has placed on the platform, only 29 have been successful.
The loss added to another loss three weeks ago after shorting on the Kanye West-linked meme coin, YZY. Tate’s losses on Hyperliquid hit $726k last week and currently stand at $695k.
Source: Hyperdash
The risk of leveraged trading
These four aren’t alone in the red books of leveraged trading, as it’s always a high-risk game that has bankrupted several big accounts. This was recently highlighted by Aguila Trades on Hyperliquid. The account had its highest profit at $41.7 million, but it ended up with a loss of $37.6 million.
The reason for this is that leveraged trading allows traders to amplify their positions by borrowing funds. This then lets them control large amounts of capital with small investments, but it also amplifies their potential losses.
If the bet doesn’t work out, the platform liquidates the investor’s assets to refund other investors, something that can result in huge losses. Whale accounts tend to have a significant appetite for leverage, with some taking as much as 25x and 40x leverage. However, this also means that small price movements can trigger cascading losses, as we’ve seen with GSR Markets. Sure, there are opportunities for traders, but there’s also a huge risk that has continued to make the trade controversial.
