Tesla can fly. So can this Hyperliquid whale: a $98M Bitcoin long, $34M of Tesla at 20x, now $38M of Google

Daily · Oct 19, 2026 · CryptoAnimon · All posts

The weekend in one line: Saturday broke the longs, Sunday broke the shorts. On Saturday ETH fell to 2,353.6 and took out the two whale lines we flagged on Friday. On Sunday BTC dipped to 80,644, then rallied to close up 0.8% at 82,079. ETH closed at 2,409 after a low of 2,326.9, HYPE rose 1.1% to 78.81 and SOL rose 0.7% to 104.09. Sunday's liquidations came to $58.2M, 62% of them shorts. Open interest on Hyperliquid's main perps held at $11.04B. Big trades ($100K+) net-sold $18.1M of PUMP, 86% of its big-trade volume.

On Friday we wrote that about $20M of ETH longs sat at 2,378–2,380: 0x30af…393e and Machi Big Brother. On Saturday at 21:32 UTC, ETH got there.

Saturday: both ETH lines broke

21:32 UTC: Machi's 0x020c…5872 was liquidated on 3,400 ETH ($8.04M).
21:38 UTC: 0x30af was liquidated on 4,008 ETH ($9.44M).
21:39 UTC: ETH bottomed at 2,353.6. By 21:50 it was back at 2,376.

On Friday both of them had sold early and dodged it. On Saturday, neither did.

Sunday: the $98M Bitcoin long "hanging by a thin thread"

That was the headline on Bitcoin.com. TokenPost, KuCoin and others ran the same story: a $98M Bitcoin long at 40x on Hyperliquid, close to liquidation. It's the same wallet, 0x30af.

Here's what the headlines didn't cover:

On Friday its BTC liquidation line was 80,275. By Sunday it had moved down to 79,828. The size hadn't changed, so the whale had added margin.
On Sunday at 20:15 UTC, BTC hit 80,644, 1.0% above that line.
It didn't wait for that 1%. From 16:17 to 21:12 UTC it sold all 1,356 BTC and booked a $1.31M loss.
Then BTC rallied: 82,188 by 23:30, and it's still around 81,900, above the whale's 81,914 entry.

An hour later: $34.5M of Tesla at 20x

Two charts of wallet 0x30af…393e on Hyperliquid, Oct 18–19 UTC. Left: BTC 15-minute candles fall to a low of 80,644, 1% above the 79,828 liquidation line of a 40x long; the wallet sells all 1,356 BTC for −$1.31M, then BTC rallies above its 81,914 entry. Right: the Tesla perp sits near 349.5 until the wallet starts buying at 22:19 UTC, accounts for about half of all volume for two hours, and pushes the price to 365; its 20x long has an entry of 360.23 and, on Sunday night, a liquidation of 350.86

At 22:19 UTC, 67 minutes after its last BTC sale, the wallet started buying Hyperliquid's Tesla perp (xyz:TSLA). By 00:11 UTC Monday it had bought 94,511 TSLA.

For two hours, from 22:00 to 00:00 UTC, it was about half of all Tesla perp volume on Hyperliquid: 82,145 of 164,335 shares. The price went from 349.5 to a high of 365.47.

What it held this morning:

TSLA: $34.1M at 20x, entry 360.23
DRAM: $7.68M at 20x, liquidation 45.29
SOXL: $3.94M at 10x

The account was worth $2.47M, and every dollar of it was posted as margin.

On Sunday night the Tesla liquidation line was 350.86, almost exactly where Tesla traded before this wallet started buying. On Monday the Tesla perp slid to 353, and between 07:40 and 11:30 UTC the whale moved margin around: out of SOXL, into Tesla. Tesla's line moved down to 348.15. SOXL's moved up, from 89.40 to 95.70. It's borrowing from one position to keep the other one alive.

Tesla reports earnings on Wednesday, Oct 21, after the close. The whale didn't wait for it.

US open: out of Tesla, into Google

At the 13:30 UTC open, Tesla ran from 353 to 366. Between 14:02 and 14:07 UTC the whale sold all 96,522 TSLA at an average of 360.58, just above its 360.23 entry. In the same five minutes it closed DRAM and SOXL too. Total profit on the three: about +$548K. Most of it came from DRAM (+$285K) and SOXL (+$229K). Tesla itself made $34K.

At 14:23 UTC it started buying the Google perp (xyz:GOOGL). By 14:40 it held 111,321 GOOGL, $38.5M at 15x, isolated, entry 345.81, liquidation 330.87. That's the whole account, $2.61M, behind one stock.

Same pattern as Tesla: between 14:15 and 14:45 UTC it was about 60% of all Google perp volume on Hyperliquid, and the price went from 343.4 to 346.6.

For context, this isn't a small account having a bad week. It hit $23.9M on Sep 25 and withdrew $10M the next day. This week it lost $9.5M. Its all-time profit is still +$2.2M, by Hyperliquid's own numbers.

Machi: liquidated Saturday, 1% from liquidation again

Machi didn't step back either. In the same hour as his liquidation, he bought 900 ETH back at about 2,380. When ETH dipped to 2,326.9 on Sunday, he sold 590 ETH near 2,338 (−$36K) and survived. Then he bought back in again.

This morning: 2,350 ETH at 25x, liquidation 2,395.28. When ETH slid at the US open, he sold 750 ETH between 13:38 and 14:02 UTC, mostly at a loss. Now: 1,600 ETH ($3.83M), liquidation 2,370.62. ETH is at 2,394. That's 1.0% away. His account holds $115K.

KuCoin's headline on Saturday: "Maji suffers $36.85M loss." Hyperliquid's own all-time number for this wallet is −$36.9M. The headline is right.

How often does 20x end like this?

We looked at 6,740 big Hyperliquid wallets from July 2025 to October 2026. For each wallet and each day, we compared its total positions with its account size (effective leverage). Then we checked the next 30 days of profit and loss, after fees and funding.

Effective leverage	Lost half the account within 30 days
Under 3x	2.3%
3–5x	7.9%
5–10x	12.1%
10–20x	20.3%
20x and up	28.0%

Three days out of four, these wallets run under 3x. Above 20x, more than one time in four they lost half the account within a month. Under 3x, about one in forty.

One surprise: the chance of being down at all after 30 days barely moves with leverage (36% under 3x, 39% above 20x). High leverage doesn't make losing more likely. It makes losing big more likely.

And these are the wallets that made it onto our list, which tilts toward winners. For an average trader, 28% is likely the optimistic number.

Our call for today

This is our read, not a promise. We'll score it in tomorrow's post, right or wrong.

BTC (81,900): range 80,600–83,200, leaning up.

Why: the big wallets we track are long $738M at an average of 77,811, and 111 of 154 are in profit. The directional shorts ($543M, average 79,889) are mostly underwater: only 32 of 139 are in profit. Underwater shorts are fuel.
Break above 83,200: next stop 85,400–85,600, where 0xc3ed…00dd's $41.1M 40x short (it added $16.4M on Sunday) and 0xaeaa…2416's $24.7M 20x short get liquidated. $65.8M of forced buying in one band.
Break below 80,600: last week's low 79,700, then 78,808, 0xde6b…3361's $16.4M 40x long. Below that, 76,430 (0x0c4a…1b19, $25.6M at 40x) and 74,725 (0x36cd…d195, $57.2M at 10x).

ETH (2,394): range 2,380–2,450, no lean. Watch the downside gap.

Why: big longs average 2,348, big shorts 2,337. Nearly the same price. Neither side is in trouble.
Break above 2,450: 2,480, 0x4b0c…b370's 25x short (cut from $29.1M to $18.1M).
Break below: Machi at 2,371 goes first, but he's small now. Below Sunday's low of 2,327 there's almost nothing until 2,202–2,233: 0x77dd…e0e9 and 0x0392…d7d9, $209.7M of longs at 9–10x. An air pocket, then a cliff.

HYPE (78.30): range 76–80.5, slow.

Why: big longs sit on a 62.73 average cost, up 26%. They're in no hurry. But there are almost no short liquidations above (about $12K within 5%), so a rally has no fuel.
Break above 80.5: last week's highs 82.5–82.8, and it has to get there on real buying.
Break below 76: 75.67, 0x13da…08be's $10.2M 10x long. Then 71.64, the $108.9M whale at 5x, up $55.5M. It can take the hit; it's the floor most people are watching.

SOL (103.90): range 100.5–106.2, leaning up.

Why: on SOL the shorts lead ($50.3M vs $28.1M of longs), and they're underwater: average entry 99.76. Shorts also pay to hold: funding is negative (about −8% a year).
Break above 106.2: 107.4–108.7, last week's highs. Shorts who are already losing tend to cover there.
Break below 100.5: no big long liquidations until about 94 (only $3.3M). A break would be about sentiment, not forced selling.

Google perp (346.06): we think it falls back below the whale's 345.81 entry by tomorrow.

Why: on Tesla, this wallet's own buying took the price from 349.5 to 365, and once the buying stopped it gave most of it back (353 this morning). On Google it's again most of the volume. When it stops buying, the bid goes with it.
The liquidation at 330.87 is 4.4% away, so we don't expect it to be tested this week. The question is whether the whale is right a second time on a move that it mostly made itself.

Live liquidation maps: BTC · ETH · HYPE. To get a Telegram alert when one of these wallets moves, tap 🔔 next to the title on its wallet page.

Data: Hyperliquid on-chain fills, liquidations, positions and portfolio history, compiled by CryptoAnimon. Long/short averages: the ~940 hot wallets behind our liquidation maps, excluding the two market-wide short baskets and spot-hedged shorts. Headlines quoted from Bitcoin.com, TokenPost and KuCoin; Tesla's earnings date from its Q3 2026 notice. Leverage table: 6,740 wallets with $10K+ equity, wallet-days from Jul 27, 2025 to Sep 18, 2026, each followed for 30 days. Positions and prices as of about 14:40 UTC, Oct 19; "Saturday" and "Sunday" mean Oct 17 and Oct 18 (UTC).

Licensed under CC BY 4.0: you are free to quote, republish and adapt this post — please credit "CryptoAnimon" and link to https://cryptoanimon.com/w/en/daily/2026-10-19.html.