Hyperliquid trader loses $469,000, rebuilds $16M ETH short

A Hyperliquid trader lost about $469,000 before fees after an Ethereum rebound forced the closure of 8,162.8 ETH in short positions between Oct. 18 and Oct. 19. The wallet later added 1,126.2 ETH in new shorts, bringing its position to about 6,789.3 ETH, worth roughly $16.2 million.

The forced closures covered nearly $19.8 million in ETH exposure and occurred across 632 executions. Hyperliquid processed them in four partial liquidation groups between 23:27 UTC on Oct. 18 and 07:34 UTC on Oct. 19.

The wallet received 1,252,457.80 USDC at 15:19 UTC on Oct. 18. It opened short positions later that day at prices near $2,366. The liquidations were executed at prices between about $2,409 and $2,445 as ETH moved higher.

The reported $469,000 loss covers the trading result on the liquidated positions before fees and funding. It excludes the unrealized profit or loss on the short position that remained open and does not represent the wallet’s complete trading result.

The trader placed four new short orders between 13:56 and 14:04 UTC on Oct. 19. The orders added about 1,126.2 ETH, worth roughly $2.7 million at execution prices. By 16:00 UTC, the wallet held a short of about 6,789.3 ETH.

The position used cross margin with 25x leverage. Hyperliquid estimated its liquidation price at about $2,434.67, while ETH’s midprice was about $2,393.05 immediately after the account check. The liquidation trigger is based on the platform’s mark price, which uses prices from external exchanges and Hyperliquid’s order book. Funding payments and the wallet’s cross-margin balance can change the displayed liquidation estimate.

The wallet retained part of its position because Hyperliquid uses partial liquidations for large positions. For a liquidatable position above 100,000 USDC, the platform initially sends 20% of the position to the order book as a market liquidation order. If that reduction restores the account’s maintenance-margin requirements, the remaining position and collateral stay open.

Each of the four liquidation groups reduced roughly one-fifth of the position at that time. After the final group, the wallet held a short of about 5,663.1 ETH before adding the additional 1,126.2 ETH later on Oct. 19.