Whales and Wizards: The XPLUSD Fiasco Explained 🐳💰

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On a quiet morning in late August, the world of Hyperliquid’s XPL pre-contracts was anything but tranquil. In a mere five minutes, the price of XPL soared from a modest $0.6 to a dizzying $1.8, igniting whispers of market manipulation and the sly maneuvers of a few well-placed whales. 🐳

  • Four main wallets, each a master of the market’s subtle arts, collectively pocketed a staggering $46M from the August 27 Hyperliquid’s XPL pre-contracts 200% price spike.
  • The spike, a localized phenomenon, was confined to Hyperliquid, with centralized exchanges like Binance and Bitget showing no signs of such dramatic movements, thanks to Hyperliquid’s unique reliance on a single internal oracle.
  • The wallet 0xb9c…6801e, rumored to have ties to the enigmatic Justin Sun due to a historical ETH transfer, played a pivotal role in the event, though direct evidence remains elusive.

It was a Sunday morning, the kind where the world seems to hold its breath. At approximately 5:50 AM Beijing time, the XPL price began its meteoric rise, climbing from around $0.6 to a peak of $1.8 within a mere five minutes. The surge was swift and brutal, triggering a cascade of short position liquidations, mostly 1x hedge orders, before the price plummeted back to around $0.06, leaving many traders in a state of bewildered despair. 😢

Data analyzed by the astute @ai_9684xtpa revealed that four main wallets were the beneficiaries of this chaotic event, collectively amassing a profit of about $46.1 million. The wallet beginning with 0xb9c…6801e was the orchestrator, depositing $16 million in USDC and placing aggressive buy orders that sent the XPL price spiraling upwards. This wallet, with the precision of a seasoned trader, closed a portion of its positions shortly after the peak, netting a cool $16 million in profit, while still holding an $8.28 million contract position in XPL.

This wallet, presumed to be associated with Justin Sun, just longed millions of $XPL on Hyperliquid, clearing the entire order book and liquidating everyone.

He then started closing his long, making $16M in just one minute. $XPL pumped to $1.80, which is over 200% in 2 minutes…

– MLM (@mlmabc) August 26, 2025

Three other wallets-0xe417…, 0x006…, and 0x894…-also reaped the rewards of the ensuing chaos. These wallets had been accumulating long positions in XPL in the days leading up to the event and began closing them near the short-term price peak, securing their share of the spoils. 0xe417… and 0x006… shared the same funding source, while 0x894…, funded via Binance, may have profited by sheer luck. 🍀

Hyperliquid’s XPL Price Spike: A Tale of Single-Oracle Dependency

What made this event particularly noteworthy was its confinement to Hyperliquid. While the price of XPL surged dramatically on the platform, centralized exchanges like Binance and Bitget, which also listed XPL pre-contracts, remained unaffected. Chinese crypto media BlockBeats, posting on Binance Square, attributed this to Hyperliquid’s platform design, 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. Thus, the aggressive buys by a few whales were enough to drive the local price up significantly, without impacting the broader market.

The Mysterious Whales: Who Are They?

While the identities behind the wallets remain shrouded in mystery, some community members have ventured guesses based on historical on-chain activity. Analyst @ai_9684xtpa noted that the 0xb9c wallet had previously transferred Ethereum (ETH) to an address associated with Justin Sun five years ago. However, there is no direct evidence linking him to this event, leaving the true identity of the mastermind a tantalizing enigma. 🕵️‍♂️

This wallet, presumed to be associated with Justin Sun, just longed millions of $XPL on Hyperliquid, clearing the entire order book and liquidating everyone.

He then started closing his long, making $16M in just one minute. $XPL pumped to $1.80, which is over 200% in 2 minutes…

– MLM (@mlmabc) August 26, 2025

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2025-08-27 13:40