Trader who made $49 million shorting crypto lost $24 million on ether in 12 seconds

A crypto trader lost $24 million in roughly 12 seconds after being forcibly liquidated on a large ether short position, per CoinDesk. The loss came despite the trader having previously accumulated $49 million in profits from shorting cryptocurrency markets.

The wallet behind the trade, identified on the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid as pension-usdt.eth, held a short position of 50,000 ETH at the time of the liquidation, according to CoinDesk. When ether's price surged, the position was unwound through five separate liquidation orders. Those orders, executed in rapid succession, reportedly pushed ether's price even higher during the unwind — a feedback loop in which a forced liquidation itself contributes to the adverse price move that triggered it.

The trade was executed on Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetuals exchange where positions are settled on-chain, making the wallet activity and liquidation sequence publicly visible. The platform's transparency allowed on-chain observers to reconstruct the precise timing and scale of the unwind. The trader's prior $49 million in gains from shorting crypto had given pension-usdt.eth a notable profile in on-chain trading circles before this episode reversed a significant portion of those profits.

Liquidation cascades of this kind are a known risk in leveraged crypto derivatives markets. When a large short position is force-closed, the exchange or liquidation engine must buy back the underlying asset — in this case ether — which adds buying pressure at the exact moment the price is already moving against the short. That buying can trigger further price increases, which in turn can liquidate additional short positions held by other traders. CoinDesk noted that the five liquidation orders in this case contributed to upward price movement during the unwind, consistent with that pattern.

The sources available do not disclose the identity of the wallet's owner, the exact entry price or leverage ratio on the short, or the specific ether price level that triggered the liquidation. No forward-looking statements from the trader or from Hyperliquid were included in the reporting.