Hyperliquid whales sit on $4.039b in near‑perfectly balanced long–short book

Hyperliquid whales now hold $4.039b in open interest with a near‑neutral long–short split, and both sides sitting on millions in unrealized losses after choppy price action.

Whale traders on decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid (HYPE) currently hold a combined $4.039 billion in open positions, according to the latest Coinglass snapshots relayed by Asian market trackers. The book is almost perfectly balanced between directions, with $1.981 billion in longs (49.05%) and $2.058 billion in shorts (50.95%), producing a near‑neutral 0.96 long–short ratio that underscores how evenly matched the largest accounts are.

Hyperliquid’s whale book is almost perfectly split

Despite that symmetry, neither side is winning: Coinglass data from prior reporting show whales have repeatedly cycled through phases where long PnL and short PnL swing from nine‑figure gains to similarly large drawdowns as market structure on Hyperliquid adjusts. In one earlier snapshot, whale holdings sat at $4.237 billion, with long PnL at -$160 million and short PnL up $280 million; in another, a $4.181 billion book saw long PnL at $225 million versus -$169 million for shorts, illustrating how quickly the balance of pain flips between bulls and bears.

The latest configuration, with longs nursing about -$30.8 million and shorts down roughly -$14.6 million, suggests recent price action has chopped both sides rather than delivering a clean squeeze or cascade. It also highlights how tight the directional call has become at size: whales are clearly still willing to lean short on net, but only marginally so, even as the total notional risk they carry remains in the low‑single‑digit billions.

One 15x ETH long shows how brutal the tape has been

Within that aggregate picture, one Hyperliquid whale address, 0xa5b0..41, has become a focal point for on‑chain sleuths after loading up on a 15x leveraged ETH long. Data compiled by tracking sites show the trader opened a position of 40,000 ETH at an entry price of about $2,265 per coin — roughly $87 million in notional exposure — with a liquidation level down near $1,347.

As of mid‑May, that position is sitting on more than $3.6 million in unrealized losses after previously being flagged by other outlets as carrying a paper drawdown closer to $2.9 million, a reminder of how quickly PnL whipsaws at 15x. Even so, historical trade data show the same address has booked roughly $44.61 million in cumulative profit from 120,000 ETH of earlier long positions over the past two months, underscoring that this is an experienced whale absorbing a nasty mark‑to‑market hit rather than a one‑off degen punt.

Taken together, the $4.039 billion in whale exposure, the razor‑thin skew toward shorts, and the fact that both sides are in the red point to a Hyperliquid market where big accounts are still aggressive but far from omniscient, and where even seasoned whales can find themselves deeply underwater when volatility spikes.