Bitcoin Bearish Bet: Trader Who Made $192M Shorting Crypto Crash Opens New $163M BTC Short Position

A cryptocurrency trader who earned $192 million by shorting Bitcoin before last week's market crash has established a new substantial bearish position as markets strive to recover from the Trump tariff shock. The wallet, identified as 0xb317 on decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid, initiated a fresh $163 million short position on Bitcoin late Sunday, according to Hypurrscan data. This 10x leveraged position has already generated $3.5 million in profit during Asian trading hours, with a liquidation threshold set at $125,500. The same trader initially gained attention on Friday when opening a massive short position approximately 30 minutes before former President Donald Trump's unexpected announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports. This policy move erased over $19 billion from cryptocurrency market valuation and triggered the largest single-day liquidation event in market history. The perfectly timed trade resulted in nearly $200 million in profits, fueling speculation that the entity might have possessed advance knowledge of the impending policy shift. On-chain analysts and traders have since labeled this address an "insider whale," with some experts suggesting the position itself may have accelerated the market downturn. Hyperliquid represents the largest decentralized perpetuals exchange, enabling traders to open high-leverage futures positions directly on-chain without relying on centralized intermediaries like Binance or OKX. The platform has become particularly popular among high-frequency traders and whales due to its deep liquidity, transparent order book, and rapid execution capabilities, positioning it as one of the few DeFi platforms capable of handling institutional-scale trading volumes. The platform incorporates Auto-Deleveraging (ADL), a built-in safety mechanism designed to prevent bad debt accumulation during extreme market volatility. When insurance funds become depleted, ADL automatically closes profitable positions to cover losses from bankrupt accounts. While this ensures platform solvency, it can potentially exacerbate selloffs as profitable traders face liquidation to maintain system balance. According to HyperTracker data, over 6,000 wallets were affected during the weekend's ADL-triggered market flush, eliminating more than $1.2 billion in trader capital exclusively on Hyperliquid. This new short position introduces additional uncertainty to an already nervous market as participants continue evaluating contagion effects following the weekend's significant price decline.