HYPE Is Surging – And These Three Trading Firms Are Sitting On $600M In BTC, ETH Shorts

• Abraxas Capital, Fasanara Capital and Wintermute were sitting on roughly $75 million in unrealized losses on Hyperliquid short positions, according to Lookonchain.
• On the same day, Hyperliquid hit its record high over $83.
• Abraxas had built about $783 million in shorts on the venue while hedging with spot buys.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) hit a record high as crypto prices pushed higher, putting major short positions on the platform under the spotlight. Three trading firms were sitting on roughly $75 million in unrealized losses across Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) short positions, Lookonchain flagged on Sunday.

Lookonchain noted that Abraxas Capital built about $783 million in short positions on the venue. The firm was hedging heavily with spot purchases at the same time, withdrawing 73,872 ETH worth roughly $173.17 million from Binance (BNB) over four days.

Why Is HYPE Rallying?

HYPE’s price was up over 1% during the past 24 hours, after reaching an all-time high of $83.27 on Sunday. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around HYPE remained in the ‘extremely bullish’ zone, while chatter stayed at ‘extremely high’ levels over the past day. 

Hyperliquid saw $6 million in daily fees, exceeding the 24-hour fee totals of the top 5 blockchains, with fee generation rising as its derivatives platform grew.

Where The BTC, ETH Shorts Sit Right Now

Alongside Abraxas, asset manager Fasanara Capital and market maker Wintermute collectively held shorts of 138,569 ETH, worth about $338 million, and 3,425 BTC, worth about $265 million, according to on-chain data, putting $603 million in total short positions.

According to Lookonchain, these positions became the “largest short positions on the blockchain” after a price surge liquidated bigger whale accounts, leaving the “market makers' hedging accounts.”

Who Is Carrying The Biggest Paper Loss?

Abraxas accounted for the biggest paper loss, about $58 million, according to Lookonchain. Its ETH shorts were opened near $2,064 and $2,111, and its BTC shorts near $65,312 and $67,026.

Similarly, Fasanara was down about $16.6 million across its two positions. Wintermute emerged as the exception, having entered near $2,447 on ETH and $77,665 on BTC, leaving it marginally in profit on both.

Trigger prices on the positions ranged from $3,946 to $4,988 on the ETH shorts and from $128,521 to $251,307 on the BTC shorts, according to the Lookonchain table. Bitcoin was trading near $77,300 and Ethereum near $2,455 at the time.

Bitcoin’s price was up over 1% during the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BTC remained in the ‘extremely bullish’ zone, while chatter stayed at ‘extremely high’ levels over the past day. Likewise, Ethereum’s price was also up over 1% during the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around ETH remained in the ‘extremely bullish’ zone, while chatter around it stayed at ‘high’ levels over the past day.

HYPE ETF Assets Climb

Spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking HYPE held net assets of $360.39 million as of Friday, up from $265.54 million a week earlier, according to SoSoValue data. 

HYPE Spot ETFs saw total weekly net inflows of more than $3.8 million. Cumulative net inflows stood at $287.45 million, below the $308.6 million peak reached in the week to July 10. Grayscale's HYPG led on cumulative inflows at $130.17 million, followed by Bitwise's BHYP at $112.28 million and 21Shares' THYP at $48.65 million. 

Read also: Michael Burry Stays Skeptical Of Alibaba After $10.2B AI Share Sale: ‘Issuing Shares Is Now Its New Paradigm’

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.