Analyzing the Trading Strategy of Top Traders on Hyperliquid: The Art of Leverage and Timing

As the market conditions improve, the operations of large holders on the Hyperliquid platform have once again become the focus of market attention. These mysterious large fund holders, known as "whales", create waves on the platform with their strong financial power, unique trading strategies, and precise grasp of market trends. Their every move not only reflects market sentiment but also provides us with a window to observe how top traders engage in their strategies.

This article will analyze these distinctly different trading strategies, risk preferences, and success/failure logic, attempting to reveal a glimpse of their wealth secrets and discuss what lessons ordinary investors can learn from them.

Short-term Sniper qwatio: The Event-Driven and High-Leverage Art of "50x Brother"

This trader is a senior figure in the industry, having started posting Bitcoin-related content on social media since 2014, and is a loyal Bitcoin supporter. For certain reasons, qwatio chose to disappear from social media in 2015. It wasn't until March 2025, when he made over $9 million profit from a highly leveraged short position on Bitcoin, that he sparked discussions, prompting on-chain investigators to question the source of his funds, leading qwatio to choose to publicly reveal his identity in response to the doubts.

qwatio's trading style is characterized by high risk and high return, often using 50x leverage, with a keen ability to capture market movements. For example, around the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision on March 20, 2025, he shorted BTC at a price of $84,566, closing the position for a profit of $81,500 when the price dropped to $82,000. He then went long at $82,200, closing the position for an additional profit of $921,000 when the price rebounded to $85,000, achieving a total return of 164%. This is also the origin of his nickname "Hyperliquid 50X哥".

From his trading strategy, qwatio excels at capturing event-driven and fleeting opportunities, demonstrating a unique market insight. He utilizes the expectations of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions to infer that the market will present brief opportunities, executing repeated trades to achieve substantial profits during fluctuations. At the same time, he is also able to decisively enter the market during extreme fear. When Ethereum dropped to around 1500, and the market was pessimistic, qwatio chose to buy 3715 Ethereum for $5.5 million (average price 1493.5) and sold at $2502, making a profit of $3.74 million.

On May 12, the results of the China-U.S. trade negotiations were announced, and the market is expected to experience fluctuations. Qwatio opened a short position on Bitcoin at $104,094, subsequently making a profit of $1.18 million.

As of May 13, qwatio has made a profit of approximately $2.82 million on Hyperliquid. Overall, qwatio's trading is not frequent, with only 3-4 trades conducted over two months. However, each trade can accurately predict short-term trends and is bold yet meticulous, often teetering on the edge of liquidation. This style is not suitable for ordinary users to imitate, and he often incurs losses when trading in some small-cap tokens.

Coexistence of Legend and Controversy: James Wynn's MEME Coin Hunting and Large Capital Operations

James Wynn has been active on Hyperliquid since March 2025, with a trading style that leans towards longer periods (several days). In addition to mainstream tokens, he also likes to bet on MEME-themed tokens such as TRUMP, Fartcoin, and PEPE. The high volatility of MEME tokens seems to be his main source of profit.

As of May 13, the open position shows that the long position in PEPE has brought him an unrealized profit of 23 million USD, far exceeding the profits of mainstream tokens like BTC.

In terms of leverage usage, James Wynn is relatively conservative, setting different leverage multiples for different volatilities. For example, a 40x leverage is set for BTC when opening a position, while only a 10x leverage is set for PEPE.

James Wynn has also established the largest user fund (Moon Capital) on Hyperliquid, but unlike personal precision operations, this fund is currently not performing well. It opened a long position on BTC at a price of 103533, and as of May 13, the position has a loss rate of about 10%, amounting to a loss of 960,000 USD. Over the past month, the overall return of the fund has been -8%. Nevertheless, it has still attracted 10 million USD in deposits, of which 9.2 million USD is James Wynn's own funds.

Overall, James Wynn's earnings at Hyperliquid reached $45 million. His trading strategy mainly focuses on long positions, capturing opportunities during market upswings. For example, opening a 40x long position when the BTC price was $94,000, with floating profits reaching $5.4 million when the price rose above $100,000. Although the win rate is not high (around 47%), substantial profits can still be achieved through large positions and high leverage.

James Wynn is known as a "legendary trader," but his success is also accompanied by controversy. Some community members accuse him of exploiting the trust of the community for profit, such as by promoting Meme coins to inflate prices and then selling off, like the baby pepe pump-and-dump incident in 2024. However, he himself denies these accusations. Currently, these controversies and responses remain unverified.

James Wynn's successful trades benefit from large positions, often opening tens of millions or even over a hundred million at a time. Coupled with keen insights into market changes, this has led to high returns. Ample margin also allows for a high threshold for liquidation prices. This style helps achieve a higher win rate, but can also lead to significant losses if the trend is misjudged.

The Mysterious Giant Whale Emerging: Mainstream Coins Testing the Waters and Swinging Under Low Leverage

This mysterious whale has only started to be active on Hyperliquid in recent days, initially drawing attention for investing over $8 million to go long on ETH. Subsequently, the address also went long on XRP and SOL, making over $8.16 million in profit within a week.

From the perspective of trading style, this whale has substantial financial strength, with initial funding reaching 36 million USD. In addition, he is not keen on extreme speculation through short-term operations, but instead chooses low leverage and extends the holding period to maintain profits.

In terms of trading variety selection, only three mainstream altcoins, ETH, XRP, and SOL, have been traded so far. Among them, ETH has made a profit, while XRP and SOL have incurred losses. From the trading strategy perspective, this whale seems to lack decisiveness, initially only opening a position in ETH, and later choosing to go long on XRP and SOL at high levels during the market surge. As a result, with the market correction, this whale may have also experienced psychological fluctuations, closing all orders. Although the final outcome was profitable, from the perspective of operational style and mindset, it is not worth learning from.

The Firm Contrarian in the Market: Will the Heavyweight Short Sellers Laugh Last?

Compared to the giant whale introduced earlier, this whale can temporarily be considered a negative example. As of May 13, data shows that this address has incurred a floating loss of $3.12 million by shorting BTC, ETH, and SOL.

Starting from May 10th, this whale has successively injected $50.5 million into Hyperliquid for shorting. The total position amount exceeds $230 million, with over $110 million in BTC positions. This whale seems to be a firm bear in the market, with all $50.5 million invested in positions, and the positions have not been closed for several days.

Due to the strong margin, the liquidation price of this address is difficult to reach (BTC liquidation price is $142,000, Ethereum liquidation price is $4,254, and SOL liquidation price is $294). In terms of overall position profit and loss, the current loss is only about 6%.

We cannot judge whether the ultimate direction of this whale is right or wrong; we can only continue to pay attention and see if this mysterious market contrarian is a prophet who anticipates the market in advance or a big spender acting on impulse.

Looking at these formidable whales on Hyperliquid, we find that their trading strategies vary significantly, and there is no universally applicable "holy grail." Overall, whales generally prefer to choose tokens with higher liquidity, such as BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP, as their trading objects. In terms of trading style, everyone has their own set of habits; some are keen on high leverage, while others prefer to predict the market in advance. However, it is evident that these whales favor a risky approach akin to licking blood on the blade, which is not advisable for ordinary investors and cannot be replicated. In the risk-filled cryptocurrency market, only through continuous learning and forming one's own trading system can one navigate steadily through the fluctuations.