In March 2025, when Trump and the Fed rate cut expectations were intertwined, a thrilling capital hunt was staged on the decentralized derivatives platform HyperLiquid. A mysterious trader codenamed 0xf3 (with 50 times leverage, precise event-driven and rule loopholes, he won $22 million in just half a month, and even used "lifting the warehouse to harvest" to plunder $2 million in profits from the platform's treasury. This operation not only exposed the fatal weakness of the DeFi protocol, but also triggered a "whale hunting operation" initiated by Justin Sun and other KOLs. 1. Timeline review: From a huge profit of 6.8 million to a terrible harvest of 72 hours

1. March 2-3: Trump's tweet triggered a "leverage blitz"

Event-driven: Trump announced that he would include Bitcoin in the US strategic reserves, triggering a surge of more than 15% in a single day.

Giant Whale Operation: Long in HyperLiquid with 50 times leverage, closing the position within 24 hours to make a profit of US$6.8 million, with a cost-bearing rate of return of 1200%.

Market Significance: This "news market" precise sniping lays the foundation for the rumors of its "insider brother".

March 10-12: ETH long-sell carnival and a trap for crossing positions

Extreme leverage: On March 10, two ultra-short-term ETH longs won US$2.2 million with a 100% winning rate; on March 12, US$5.22 million was deposited and 140,000 ETH longs were established with 50 times leverage, accounting for 24.65% of the platform's total ETH position.

Training the position to harvest:

Training the position:

Training the position to harvest:

Cash withdrawal loophole: When the position is floating profit of $3.1 million, Giant Whale tries to withdraw USDC (far exceeding the margin of 15.23 million), triggering the system liquidation.

Platform Payment: Because the ETH price fell below the liquidation price during the liquidation, HyperLiquid (HLP) was forced to take over the position at $1,910 and bear 400A loss of $10,000, while the giant whale locked in $2 million to leave the market.

Technical defects: allow withdrawal of floating profits, and no large leverage orders are restricted, making HLP a "cash machine".

The dramatic twist takes place between 17:05 and 17:08. According to Hyperscan data, Giant Whale tried to withdraw cash continuously when its position was not closed. First, due to the failure of "exceeding the single transaction limit", the withdrawal of US$17 million was divided into two transactions (8 million and USDC 9 million), exceeding its USDC margin of US$15.23 million. The remaining positions were quickly liquidated, and at 17:08, 140,000 ETH was taken over by HLP at $1,915. As ETH price dropped to $1,910 in liquidation, HLP took on a loss of about $4 million while the giant whale locked in $2 million in profits to leave. This "cutting through position" operation shocked the community. Hyperliquid immediately announced that it would lower the maximum leverage of BTC and ETH to 40 times and 25 times respectively, trying to fix the vulnerabilities.

March 13-14: Cross-platform expansion and LINK storm

On March 13, the giant whale extended its tentacles to GMX, opened a short position of US$45.17 million, and also went long on Hyperliquid's ETH/BTC exchange rate, accurately grasping the opportunity of the exchange rate falling to 0.0228, and making a profit of US$2.15 million. On the 14th, he turned to LINK, invested $14.98 million to buy 506,000 LINK (cost 13.93), and opened 10 to 23 times long orders on Hyperliquid and GMX, and closed the position and made a profit of $1.27 million after operation. However, the 20x LINK longs were liquidated at $13.6857, with a loss of USD 1.07 million. The market was full of discussion, and Hyperliquid quickly reduced the LINK leverage cap from 20 times to 10 times, showing alertness to giant whales.

March 15-17: Giant Whale sniper short positions and platform risk control upgrade

On March 15, Giant Whale sniped BTC short positions on Hyperliquid with 40 times leverage, with a cumulative holding of US$330 million, with the highest floating profit reaching US$6.2 million, and then it was divided into points through the TWAP algorithm.Available take-profit of US$5.6 million; during the same period, GMX increased its short position of 44.97 times, with a total scale of US$194 million, and a profit of US$3.05 million was made in stages.

Platform News: Hyperliquid announced the trading volume exceeded the $1 trillion milestone on the same day, and simultaneously raised the BTC margin rate from 5% to 20%, directly targeting high-leverage speculators. The market responded quickly, and liquidity tightening expectations caused investors' anxiety, and derivative capital rates and holdings were under pressure simultaneously.

2. Anatomical giant whale strategy: a trio of high leverage, event arbitrage and rules game

1. Leverage violence aesthetics: leverage a hundred times the return

Mathematical logic: leverage 50 times the position with 1% margin, and the price fluctuates by 2% to double the principal, but the reverse fluctuation of 1% is the liquidation.

Platform selection: HyperLiquid has become a paradise for high-risk traders with zero gas fees, transparent order books on the entire chain and 50 times leverage.

2. Event-driven arbitrage: resonance with the market

Trump effect: precise betting The influx of liquidity caused by the announcement uses market FOMO sentiment to amplify fluctuations.

Macro linkage: Combining the Federal Reserve's interest rate resolution and the Bitcoin halving cycle predict the turning point of market sentiment.

3. "Legal harvest" of rule loopholes

Defects in the position-through mechanism: excessive withdrawal in the floating profit state, forcing the platform's treasury to bear the position-through loss, which is essentially "risk transfer arbitrage."

Multi-platform collaboration: establish a main position on HyperLiquid, and hedge transactions on Binance and GMX to diversify the risk of liquidation.

3. Aftershocks: HLP liquidity collapse and the "whale hunting war" in the encryption world

1. The platform hit hard: 27.7% of the capital pool evaporated and the trust crisis

Data hemorrhage: From March 12 to 13, the HLP fund pool slashed from 486 millionIt dropped to US$351 million, with the cumulative loss of positioning reaching US$7.23 million.

Emergency patch: On March 15, HyperLiquid increased the margin ratio from 5% to 20%, and the ETH leverage upper limit was cut to 25 times, but liquidity loss was no longer reversible.

2. Whale Hunting Operation: Justin Sun and Retail Investors' "Avengers"

KOL Mobilization: Crypto analyst @Cbb0fe initiated the "Whale Hunting Team" and called on the community to jointly snipe the giant whale position. Justin Sun responded to join within half an hour.

Strategic encirclement: monitor the address of the giant whale on the chain, operate in reverse when it opens its position, use the advantages of collective funds to create price fluctuations, and trigger its position explosion.

3. Regulatory alarm: "Achilles' heel" of decentralized derivatives

Transparency paradox: Although the order book on the entire chain is open and transparent, the giant whale can monitor retail investors' positions in real time for targeted sniping.

Supervision vacuum: DeFi platforms lack risk control of central counterparties, and losses through warehouses can only be shared by the treasury or the community, causing systemic risks.

The Battle to Hunter Giant Whale: Community counter-resistance and platform hard self-rescue

【Whale Hunting Operation】The Crypto community launches a self-defense counter-attack

When the allegations of "liquidity predators" sweep the market, the Crypto community launches a counter-attack with thunder. The whale hunting team formed by KOL@Cbb0fe welcomed strong franchise with Tron founder Justin Sun within half an hour. This "civil hunting" demonstrates the market's zero tolerance for the systemic arbitrage behavior of giant whales. In the community public opinion field, Giant Whale's $4 million portal operation is no longer a single transaction accident, but is also regarded as a "stress test" of the entire DeFi ecosystem - it uses the loopholes in allowing the withdrawal of floating profits and allowing high leverage orders to remove 27.7% of the HLP fund pool. The naked "ATM"-style plunder completely ignited the anger of the community.

【Rules Patch】 Hyperliquid's Sheep Lost

Faced with a total liquidity blood loss of US$7.23 million in 32 hours, Hyperliquid took out three boardsAxe Defense: On March 12, the BTC/ETH leverage was urgently reduced to 40/25 times, the LINK leverage was compressed to 10 times on March 14, and the margin ratio was finally raised from 5% to 20% on March 15. Although this combination punch blocked some of the loopholes in the rules, it was difficult to conceal the structural flaws of the mechanism design - the platform was usually forced to take over 160,000 ETH positions when the long positions of ETH were usually strong, resulting in a loss of US$3.23 million in a single day, exposing the fragility of derivatives agreements in extreme market conditions. The cruel reality that the scale of the fund pool has plummeted from 486 million to 351 million US dollars has sounded the risk control alarm for all DeFi protocols.

Profit and loss (only calculate the profits of closed positions and falling into pockets)

Conclusion: The "Dark Forest Rules" of the crypto market and the survival guide for retail investors

The huge profit legend of giant whales is actually a cruel portrayal of high leverage, information asymmetry and rule loopholes. For ordinary investors, this game gives a triple reminder:

Far from extreme leverage: 50 times leverage is the "momental switcher between rich people and beggars". Even if the winning rate is 99%, the black swan can return to zero at one time.

Beware of the "platform dividend": Behind zero gas fees and high leverage, the unproven risk control mechanism may be the breeding ground for giant whales to harvest.

Follow Smart Money: Monitor giant whale addresses and economic events, but strict stop-profit and stop-loss discipline is required to avoid becoming cannon fodder for "whale hunting operations".