A Hyperliquid trader holding an 81% short book has amassed $2.7 million in all-time profit, even as institutional inflows into HYPE ETFs near $172 million.
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Hyperliquid trader nets $2.7M profit as HYPE ETFs draw $172M in inflows
A Hyperliquid trader holding an 81% short book has amassed $2.7 million in all-time profit, even as institutional inflows into HYPE ETFs near $172 million.
A Hyperliquid trader has accumulated $2.7 million in profit while maintaining an 81% short position, data from the platform shows.
"The sustained profitability on the short side, even as HYPE rallies, suggests the trader is running a sophisticated multi-asset strategy rather than a directional bet against the token," Sammi Li, CEO of Ju.com, said.
The $2.7 million in realized profit comes as Hyperliquid's native token HYPE surged 73% in the past month to hit an all-time high of $75.96 on Tuesday, per CoinGecko data. Three HYPE ETFs — Bitwise's BHYP, 21Shares' THYP and Grayscale's HYPG — have pulled in nearly $172 million in net inflows since their May debut, according to SoSoValue data, while spot Bitcoin ETFs shed roughly $5.6 billion over the same period.
The divergence highlights growing institutional appetite for protocols that generate measurable fees over passive, non-yielding assets. Hyperliquid's Assistance Fund routes 97% to 99% of trading fees into token buybacks, creating a structural link between platform volume and token demand that persists even as macro headwinds pressure the broader crypto market.
Short Book Persists as Platform Volume Diversifies
The trader's 81% short allocation coincides with a rapid expansion of Hyperliquid's asset universe. SpaceX's SPCX perpetuals, launched via the platform's HIP-3 permissionless framework, attracted $1.4 billion in single-session volume, per hl.eco data, accounting for roughly 30% of all HIP-3 volume that day. Coinbase, as treasury deployer for Hyperliquid's $5 billion USDC reserves, earns a 4% yield through the AQAv2 program, with 90% redirected to the Assistance Fund and compounding the buyback mechanism.
Options markets imply a 10% to 15% chance HYPE reaches $100 by the end of July, Nick Forster, co-founder and CEO of Derive, said Monday. The broader crypto market saw roughly $150 million in short positions liquidated across exchanges after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a peace deal, as bitcoin climbed back above $65,000, per Coinglass data.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
