Crypto Whale Takes $445M Short on Bitcoin While Placing a Bullish Bet on MELANIA Token
Bitcoin (BTC) has remained stable since last Tuesday, climbing above $84,000 over the weekend. However, one crypto whale has taken a contrarian stance, opening a $445 million leveraged short position against BTC while simultaneously going long on the MELANIA token.
According to Hyperliquid and Lookonchain, the whale’s BTC perpetual futures short is leveraged at 40x, with a liquidation price set at $86,000. As of now, the position has generated an unrealized gain of $1.3 million.
The move quickly gained attention on X (formerly Twitter) when pseudonymous trader CBB attempted to coordinate a group of traders to liquidate the whale’s position.
“11 hours ago, @Cbb0fe publicly formed a team to hunt this whale who shorted BTC with 40x leverage. Just one hour later, the team was in action, driving BTC above $84,690,” Lookonchain reported.
As BTC’s price climbed, the whale was forced to deposit $5 million USDC to increase margin and avoid liquidation. Despite the effort to force an exit, the whale successfully defended the position, and the squeeze attempt ultimately failed.
Whale’s Bullish Play on MELANIA Token
In addition to the BTC short, the whale has taken a 5x leveraged long on MELANIA perpetual futures, expecting a price increase for the memecoin. Reports suggest that MELANIA is marketed by MKT World LLC, a Florida-based company linked to Melania Trump, the wife of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Hyperliquid Highlights Market Transparency
The trading platform Hyperliquid addressed the situation, emphasizing its commitment to transparency in crypto trading.
“When a whale shorts $450M+ BTC and wants a public audience, it’s only possible on Hyperliquid. The decentralized future is here,” the platform wrote on X.
Hyperliquid has been in the spotlight recently after a major trader exploited a “liquidation arbitrage” strategy, extracting floating profits and triggering forced liquidations, which shifted risk to the platform’s HLP vault.
