Whale Wallets Rotate Into HFDX as On-Chain Perp Trading Spreads Beyond a Single Venue

Overview

• Nansen and Arkham identify rising deposits and interactions from labeled smart-money cohorts on HFDX, with open interest highlighted as the cleaner gauge of committed capital.
• HFDX emphasizes observable, protocol-linked liquidity and Liquidity Loan Notes that target fee- and borrowing-backed returns instead of inflationary token incentives.
• Large-trader features on HFDX include partial liquidations, sub–five-basis-point slippage targets for $1–$10 million orders during volatility spikes, TWAP execution, hidden orders, and an oracle reliability framework.
• Operational setbacks elsewhere continue to shape risk assessments, including Hyperliquid’s JELLY incident involving manual intervention and Paradex’s January 2026 database error that triggered mass liquidations and an eight-hour rollback.
• Hyperliquid remains the benchmark for raw execution, speed, and depth, and analysts caution that accumulating whale activity on HFDX is an early signal rather than confirmation of a lasting market share shift.