On March 12, on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain reported a 50 times leveraged whale activity in which a user deposited 10 million USDC to decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) Hyperliquid to place an order at $1,921 for Ethereum.

The whale’s long Ether position quickly hit $271.6 million in 141,013 ETH. With an entry price of $1,900.2 and a liquidation price of $1,805, the whale gained an unrealized profit of $3.65 million.

A long position is when a trader buys an asset expecting its price to increase. In leveraged trading, they borrow funds to amplify potential gains (or losses),

Ethereum recorded a rise of 7% within a day and was exchanging hands at $1,920 at press time. The whale was quick to leverage the price action to record such a huge profit.

Lookonchain alleged that the whale might have access to insider information as its positions on ether are quite bullish, given its current price range.

The analytics platform revealed that the whale has been actively accumulating ETH over the past month with a long-term bullish outlook. In fact, it has executed several high-value transactions between Hyperliquid and external liquidity pools.

On March 2, it had booked a profit of $6.8 million by taking long positions on Bitcoin and Ethereum with 50x leverage before President Donald Trump’s executive order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

However, this isn’t the only whale active on Hyperliquid. Lookonchain pointed to eight such whales withdrawing $14.35 million in USDC from Hyperliquid.

As social media was abuzz with confusion, Hyperliquid clarified on X (formerly Twitter) that there was no exploit or hack on the protocol.

The protocol announced that it is lowering the maximum leverage for Bitcoin and Ethereum to 40 times and 25 times respectively.