Overview
- Analysts say an unidentified actor withdrew about $3 million in USDC from OKX, spread funds across 19 wallets, and built roughly $20 million to $30 million in leveraged POPCAT longs near a $0.21 buy wall.
- When the buy wall disappeared, POPCAT whipsawed and then plunged roughly 40% to 50% intraday, with trackers logging about $63 million in long liquidations, including a single wipeout of around $21 million.
- Hyperliquid’s community Hyperliquidity Provider vault absorbed about $4.9 million in bad debt after collateral was exhausted, and developers manually closed remaining exposures to stabilize the market.
- The exchange temporarily paused USDC deposits and withdrawals over its Arbitrum bridge, with users and explorers noting an EmergencyLock trigger, while other transfers were reported processing again shortly after.
- Spot and derivatives activity surged during the episode, with reports of a 500% jump in spot volume and a more than 1,000% spike in futures volume, intensifying scrutiny of leverage, risk controls, and possible deliberate manipulation.