A large trader on decentralised perpetuals exchange Hyperliquid saw a $42 million leveraged bitcoin long partially liquidated after BTC slipped below $66,000 over the weekend.
The whale entered the position with 40x leverage at the start of March when bitcoin was trading near $67,000, prompting widespread commentary on X about the high-risk, high-conviction bet.
“A massive whale just entered a $42M BTC long using 40x leverage,”
One widely shared X post noted.
“High risk. High conviction. The market is about to get interesting.”
Instead of rebounding, bitcoin fell under $66,000, triggering forced liquidations that reduced the position’s total value to roughly $16.9 million and leaving the account’s equity at about $463,729.
The trader, who is using cross margin, now has the remaining $463,729 serving as collateral across both the bitcoin position and a smaller solana trade that is showing a modest profit of around $71,238, and following the announcement the Hyperliquid share price was unchanged at $N/A.
With the updated liquidation level at $65,394 and bitcoin recently trading near $66,237, a further decline of roughly 1.2% would trigger another liquidation event and potentially erase the remaining balance.
The episode underscores the heightened risks of extreme leverage in volatile conditions, particularly as geopolitical tensions and macro uncertainty continue to drive sharp intraday swings in bitcoin prices.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $66,222.49.