XPL Price Soars After Whale Trade
A big wallet (suspected to belong to Justin Sun, founder of Tron) made headlines on Hyperliquid after earning $16 million profit in under a minute. The trader bought a huge amount of $XPL, causing the price to jump to $1.80 (+200% in 2 minutes) and wiping out many smaller traders. Even after taking profit, the wallet still holds $10.2M worth of $XPL.
This sudden move also affected Hyperliquid’s HLP vault. It gained around $47,000 from the volatility, but previously the same vault had lost nearly $12 million in a similar event involving the JELLY token. That shows liquidity providers can make money from trading fees but also risk heavy losses when markets swing too fast.
Hyperliquid had faced this issue before with JELLY, when unusual price action caused massive liquidations. At that time, the exchange refunded affected traders and added new safety measures. In both cases, the problem came from a single whale move in a market with thin liquidity, leading to extreme short squeezes.
What It Means for Regular Traders
The $XPL surge shows the danger of order book sweeps on decentralized exchanges. When liquidity is thin, one big order can push through price levels, causing a chain reaction of liquidations and sudden price spikes. Retail traders usually can’t react in time and often lose money.
Here are three key lessons for small investors:
- Avoid high leverage in markets with low liquidity—your position can be wiped out instantly.
- Check order book depth and on-chain flows before entering a trade to avoid whale traps.
- If you provide liquidity (like in HLP vaults), remember that profits can turn into big losses during unexpected volatility.
