The volatile nature of the crypto market naturally attracts traders with an extraordinary appetite for risk, and a recent trade on the Hyperliquid perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) is the latest example.
Hyperliquid trader turns $3M into $18.3M
According to an X post by on-chain investigating account Lookonchain, a trader on popular DEX Hyperliquid recently turned $3 million worth of USDC into $18.3 million within just five days. The trader achieved the feat by going max-leverage short.
For the uninitiated, going max-leverage shorts means the trader borrowed the maximum allowed funds to bet on the digital assets’ prices to go down, increasing potential gains. Although profits increase as the cryptocurrencies’ prices fall, even a slight surge in price can liquidate the trader’s position.
What stood out about this particular trader is that they went into full degen mode. Instead of taking profits early, they continued to roll earnings back into the position to compound their gains as crypto prices continued to tumble.
As the market continued to fall, the trader’s unrealized gains ballooned, reaching as much as $18.35 million – recording an impressive 6x increase in just five days. What’s even more impressive is the trader’s current positions.
According to Lookonchain, the trader currently has a position of 1,667 BTC ($148 million), 45,523 ETH ($134.8 million), 928,898 HYPE ($19.9 million), and 824 XMR ($412,000). While some people commended the trader’s moves, they also cautioned that it’s an extremely risky play.
Perp DEXs continue to gain traction
2025 was undoubtedly the year of perpetual DEXs, specifically, trading platforms like Hyperliquid and Aster stole the limelight, recording trading volume in billions of dollars. In August 2025, Hyperliquid trading volume hit a high of $406 billion.
That said, there remains a significant gap between perpetual DEXs and their centralized counterparts like Binance and OKX. A recent report by BloFin Research posited that despite the recent growth in adoption, perp DEXs are still not likely to replace perp CEXs anytime soon.
