Crypto Market Rebound Blindsides Short Sellers

While most cryptocurrency investors celebrated the market's resurgence following the resolution of a potential US government shutdown, some short sellers were caught completely off guard by the upward momentum. The recent crypto market recovery triggered a cascade of liquidations, notably impacting high-leverage trader James Wynn. Data from Hyperdash reveals that Wynn's main Hyperliquid account was liquidated multiple times in a single day, plummeting his wallet's value to a mere $5,422. Lookonchain, a blockchain data platform, reports that this unexpected surge led to Wynn being liquidated a staggering 12 times within 12 hours, contributing to a total of 45 liquidations over the past two months.

High-Risk Bets Before the Surge

Prior to the market's dramatic turnaround, Wynn was heavily invested in leveraged Bitcoin (BTC) short positions, essentially betting against the cryptocurrency's price. This strategy backfired spectacularly as the market defied expectations. Despite these significant losses, Wynn doubled down on his short positions, transferring all his stablecoin holdings into these bets. He anticipated Bitcoin falling below $92,000, even amidst growing optimism surrounding the averted US government shutdown.

A Trader's Gamble: All-In on Short Positions

"In the past few hours, I have deployed all stables (30%) + and thrown it all on top of my short positions. No joke. As all-in as I can get," Wynn declared in a Monday post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "I'm either going to make hundreds of millions from my leverage short positions or I will go bust," he added, acknowledging the immense risk he was undertaking. At the time of this report, Wynn's primary account held a 40x leveraged short position in Bitcoin valued at $275,000. This position would face liquidation if Bitcoin's price surpassed $6,856. Hyperdash data indicates that Wynn initiated the short position when Bitcoin was trading below $101,800. As of 11:20 am UTC on Monday, he was facing an unrealized loss of $11,147.

Insights from Smart Money Traders

Interestingly, leading traders in the industry, often referred to as "smart money" traders and tracked on Nansen's blockchain intelligence platform, are also anticipating potential downside for Bitcoin. The majority of these smart money traders are currently holding short positions on Bitcoin. According to Nansen, the net perpetual short position on Hyperliquid reached $223 million on Monday, with $5.2 million in new short positions being opened in the last 24 hours.

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