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Hyperliquid Takes $4.9 Million Hit After Orchestrated POPCAT Pump-and-Crash

On-chain sleuths are probing wallet clusters that may connect the setup to BTX Capital.

Overview

  • Hyperliquid briefly paused Arbitrum bridge transfers using an emergency lock and then resumed activity after manual position closures.
  • Blockchain data shows roughly $3 million withdrawn from OKX was split across 19 wallets to build $20–$30 million in POPCAT longs supported by a buy wall near $0.21.
  • The buy wall was pulled, POPCAT plunged, and about $63 million in long liquidations followed, including a single position near $21 million.
  • With trader collateral exhausted, Hyperliquid’s community HLP vault absorbed about $4.9 million in bad debt as the exchange intervened to stabilize exposure.
  • Investigators report coordinated funding trails and tentative ties to BTX Capital–linked addresses, and the episode adds to a 2025 rise in capital-based manipulation that CertiK estimates at $42 million in losses.