On the evening of April 24, 2026, the newly created wallet address 0x0b8a first sold 75 ETH on Hyperliquid, cashing out approximately $174,000, and then leveraged the raised funds to 5x to long about 9.19 million APE, with a nominal value of about $1.03 million, becoming one of the most representative high-leverage bets on-chain that day. The aggressive operation of a single new address to "liquidate ETH and go all in on APE" in a short time directly pushed the risk exposure on Hyperliquid to one end.

Simultaneously occurring with this type of new capital's gamble is the tug-of-war between existing large whales' long and short positions. Glassnode pointed out that over the past two months, large whale long positions on Hyperliquid have steadily increased, continuously betting on breaking through price ranges. Foresight, TechFlow, and Odaily all echoed this signal on April 24, emphasizing that large perpetual contract traders on the platform are generally bullish, particularly biased towards BTC's subsequent trend. On the other hand, Onchainlens monitored that address 0x58bro had cumulatively deposited 3,811 ETH (about $9.03 million) to Binance over the past month, with only 0.5 ETH remaining on-chain, but according to Jinse Finance and PANews, it still holds a 25x leverage short on ETH and a 40x leverage short on BTC on Hyperliquid, with total profits of about $33 million. On the same platform, a group of whales continuously increased their long positions, while another group remained steadfast in their high-leverage shorts, forming a clear divergence in bullish and bearish sentiment.

Artemis data shows that Ethereum earned $2.7 million in fee income within 24 hours, while Hyperliquid earned $1.7 million during the same period, showing a not low level of activity among derivatives platforms. Combined with the 5x APE long of 0x0b8a, the continuous accumulation of whale longs, and the representative positions of 25x ETH shorts and 40x BTC shorts held by 0x58bro, it is evident that high leverage is concentrated on both the long and short sides, significantly raising the amplification effect of future price fluctuations and the risk of chain liquidations. Next, this article will break down how different direction whales are positioned along these on-chain signals, and what this seemingly hedged yet actually overlapping leverage structure indicates for future market paths and overall risk exposure.

Whales Raise Leverage Betting on BTC Rise

In contrast to addresses like 0x58bro continuously increasing their high leverage shorts, glassnode's on-chain monitoring on April 24, 2026, shows that whales on the other side of Hyperliquid have been continuously raising leverage to go long for two months. Glassnode pointed out that the long positions of large perpetual contract traders over the past two months have been at a "steady increase" pace, rather than a sudden surge on any particular day, indicating that the funding is being incrementally built up in a planned manner, rather than driven by short-term emotional noise.

More importantly, this long curve is formed against the backdrop of Bitcoin's long-term range consolidation. The current specific price range upper and lower limits have not yet been explicitly provided by public data, but the media generally describe this period as "sideways consolidation." Within such a range, glassnode believes that large accounts on Hyperliquid have "always been expecting the price to break out of the current range," meaning that the core logic for these whale longs is to bet on a directional breakout at some future point in time rather than simply profiting from short-term fluctuations within the range.

Foresight News, during the timeframe of 16:45-17:00, conveyed glassnode's view by directly defining this long leveraging behavior as "strongly bullish on BTC’s subsequent trend"; reports from Odaily and TechFlow during the same timeframe also emphasized the structural trend of "whale longs on Hyperliquid continuously increasing," linking it to the "expectation of a price range breakout." By 19:29, Odaily's evening news again bundled this signal with other market information from that day, amplifying the narrative of "whales raising leverage to go long for two months" in public discourse, becoming a core reference for observing sentiment in the derivatives market.

Structurally, this type of sustained long positions with increased leverage signals two levels to the market: first, it reflects the optimism of large perpetual traders regarding BTC’s mid-to-long-term trend, being more willing to use time to exchange for space, enduring long periods of sideways funding costs and volatility pressure; second, once the price breaks away from the current consolidation range, these high-leverage longs may play a role in "pushing the momentum"—if there is an upward breakout, longs' profits expand, additional margin is posted or positions are increased, amplifying the upward momentum; however, if the breakout fails or there is a violent reverse fluctuation, they may also trigger chain liquidations due to high leverage concentration, enlarging collective liquidation risks.

Combining the extreme leverage cases on the short side mentioned in the previous section, it can be seen that the dominant funds on Hyperliquid are not simply aligned on one side but have continuously raised leverage on the long side while maintaining substantial short exposure over the past two months. In comparison with the accumulated trend of longs disclosed by glassnode and the media's description of "strongly bullish sentiment," the current market structure resembles a high-leverage confrontation surrounding BTC’s range breakout: longs are patiently positioning over the time dimension, while shorts are seeking reverse opportunities amidst price fluctuations. Any amplified movement will increase the pressure on one side, thereby raising the probability of a reshuffling in the entire chain’s leverage structure.

New Wallet Liquidates ETH to Bet on APE Longs

On the night that the confrontation between high-leverage longs and shorts gradually escalated, an extreme bet initiated by a "newly created wallet" was magnified by on-chain data. Around 21:54 on April 24, 2026, according to Lookonchain monitoring, the new address 0x0b8a sold 75 ETH on Hyperliquid for approximately $174,000, completely liquidating its original ETH spot position to free up all margin space for subsequent leverage.

After rearranging funds, the address almost simultaneously injected the entire $174,000 into derivative positions: it opened a 5x leverage long contract on Hyperliquid, going long about 9.19 million APE, corresponding to a nominal value of about $1.03 million. In other words, within the observable scope, this wallet, previously with no long-term holding record, amplified a 75 ETH spot exposure into a high-leverage long position in APE, approximately 6 times the original amount.

From a risk exposure perspective, this 5x leverage position, with a nominal value of about $1.03 million, indicates that 0x0b8a's margin size is roughly 20% of the nominal position, while price fluctuations simultaneously magnify the impact on the account's equity by 5 times. In the absence of other long-term asset buffers, this strategy of "using a 75 ETH spot to leverage a million-level nominal APE long" is more akin to a full warehouse directional bet rather than a diversified asset allocation.

Combined with its "newly created wallet" label and the size of a single bet, such behavior resembles an aggressive gamble on short-term market windows: first, locking in chips by liquidating ETH, then concentrating bets on the upward potential of a single asset, APE. Unlike the behavior pattern depicted by glassnode of "whales steadily accumulating longs and patiently waiting for a breakout," the trading path of 0x0b8a shows clear short-term speculative characteristics, also becoming one of the most representative high-leverage single bets on APE on Hyperliquid that day.

Short Whale Earns 30 Million Yet Continues to Bet

Unlike 0x0b8a's short-term heavy position in APE longs, 0x58bro's rhythm resembles a systemic short position with long-term layouts and repeated increases.

According to Onchainlens data, over the past month, 0x58bro has cumulatively deposited 3,811 ETH into Binance, worth about $9.03 million at the time, with 2,791 ETH (approximately $664,000) flowing into Binance in the last 24 hours alone; currently, only 0.5 ETH remains on-chain. In other words, this address has almost "drained" all its ETH on the spot side and transferred it to centralized exchanges, greatly weakening long exposure on-chain.

Meanwhile, reports from Jinse Finance and PANews indicate that 0x58bro still maintains high-leverage shorts on Hyperliquid: 25x leverage short on ETH and 40x leverage short on BTC are both still open, with total profits on that platform of about $33 million. Choosing to continue holding high-leverage shorts despite having already realized tens of millions in profits, rather than systematically reducing positions to lock in gains, is itself highly indicative.

From a structural perspective, 0x58bro currently presents three layers of overlapping short exposure:

● Spot side: Large ETH holdings concentrated and transferred to Binance, possibly for sale within the exchange or as contract margin, leaving virtually no spot buffer on-chain;
● Perpetual side: Maintaining high-leverage shorts on ETH and BTC on Hyperliquid, directly amplifying sensitivity to downward movement in both assets;
● Rhythm side: With total profits reaching about $33 million, still in no rush to exit, tolerating significant room for drawdown, clearly not a pure "shoot and run" approach.

Specific opening times, average costs, and adjustment rhythms have not yet been publicly disclosed, making it difficult to precisely restore its complete trading logic. However, within the context of glassnode’s description of "whales steadily increasing long positions on Hyperliquid for the past two months, broadly betting on an upward breakout", 0x58bro’s choice to maintain its 25x and 40x shorts on ETH and BTC for the long term likely indicates several possible judgments occurring:

● Skepticism regarding the upward breakout of the current price range, believing that bullish sentiment is overestimated and the downside has not yet fully released;
● Attempting to hedge against potential long exposures that may exist in other scenarios (e.g. off-chain or other accounts) by constructing “asymmetric protection” with high-leverage shorts;
● Viewing the market as still being within a high-volatility range, willing to use high leverage to bet on excessive returns brought by single downward movements, even with about $33 million in profits already as a cushion.

No matter the true motivation, this high-leverage short behavior, continuing to bet based on substantial profits, forms a stark contrast with the generally thickening long positions on Hyperliquid, making 0x58bro one of the current most "counterintuitive" players in the long-short structure: on one side is the systematic accumulation of longs recorded by on-chain data, while on the other is a single whale that has almost emptied its ETH on-chain yet persists in holding high-leverage shorts, clearly demonstrating caution and divergence toward future market movements.

Ethereum Revenue Exceeds Hyperliquid

Shifting from the tug-of-war of a single whale to the overall data perspective, Artemis's comparison of fee income clearly delineates Hyperliquid's current position.

On April 24, 2026, at 16:02, Odaily cited Artemis data stating that in the past 24 hours, Ethereum's network fee income was $2.7 million, while Hyperliquid's 24-hour fee income during the same time window was $1.7 million. The report clarified that Ethereum "leads" Hyperliquid in this metric, reflecting that the overall activity level on the Ethereum mainnet remains higher.

This means that even with extreme positions like 0x58bro's 25x ETH short and 40x BTC short betting, as well as 0x0b8a selling 75 ETH on Hyperliquid and then betting approximately $1.03 million on 9.19 million APE with 5x leverage, the platform still significantly lags behind the Ethereum mainnet’s general transaction and interaction demand in terms of fee scale.

Structurally, this combination of "many dramatic positions among whales, yet total fee volume still small" likely indicates that the current user and trading behavior on Hyperliquid remains relatively concentrated: high-frequency, heavily leveraged professional participants are more active, but have not evolved into a large-scale trading environment widely spread among small to medium funds and everyday users. In other words, what is visible on-chain is the fierce competition of a few large perpetual contract traders, not a comprehensive crowding resulting from multiple scenarios and types of users as seen on the Ethereum mainnet.

It is important to emphasize that fee income is usually highly correlated with trading activity and user participation, but this metric alone does not directly indicate the overall profitability of the platform nor does it separately characterize the distribution of risk among different participants. What we can currently confirm is that on Hyperliquid, the duel between whales has already been eye-catching enough, but in terms of on-chain fee volume, it remains a high-intensity battle occurring within a relatively professional circle.

How to Understand Hyperliquid Amid Long-Short Tug of War

Looking at the on-chain signals from the past two months together, Hyperliquid is being shaped into a highly concentrated battleground for long and short bets: on one side is the group of whales that glassnode calls "continuously adding long positions for range breakthrough over the past two months," with long positions steadily rising and the media repeatedly conveying their strong bullish expectations for BTC’s subsequent trend; on the other side is a short whale like 0x58bro, who maintains a 25x short on ETH and a 40x short on BTC on Hyperliquid, having realized about $33 million in profit and still not closed out, alongside new wallets like 0x0b8a that sold 75 ETH (approximately $174,000) on April 24 evening and immediately opened a high-leverage long position on approximately 9.19 million APE (approximately $1.03 million). The differentiation in long-short direction, asset selection, and leverage preference is highly pronounced, yet they converge within the same platform and time window, painting the true picture of Hyperliquid.

Against this backdrop, what is most worth continually tracking is not the profit and loss of individual positions, but rather the evolution of several structural variables: first, the overall position structure and leverage changes of whale longs and shorts on Hyperliquid—glassnode currently only provides one side of "continuously increasing longs," while short whales like 0x58bro remain present with high leverage; how the power dynamics shift between both sides in response to market fluctuations needs ongoing observation through future disclosures and on-chain behavior; second, the migration paths of funds between on-chain and centralized exchanges, such as the cumulative deposit of 3,811 ETH by 0x58bro to Binance within a month around April 23, leaving only 0.5 ETH on-chain; these combinations of "withdrawing chips from the chain while retaining high-leverage shorts on the contract side" can significantly affect potential selling pressure and hedging pace; third, the relative changes in fees and transaction activity between Ethereum and Hyperliquid, as the Artemis data reflecting a fee difference of $2.7 million to $1.7 million within 24 hours indicates that the ongoing long-short battle on Hyperliquid is still primarily occurring within a specialized derivatives circle, whether its impact will spill over to a broader range of on-chain activities depends on whether this gap continues to narrow; fourth, whether the frequency of new wallets like 0x0b8a "selling ETH spot and leveraging to go long on high-volatility tokens" will increase, directly relating to whether risk begins to accumulate rapidly across more dispersed participant levels.

It is also important to understand that all current judgments about whether these positions "can continue to profit" or "when they will be passively liquidated" exceed the factual boundaries that can be provided by this report—whether it is 0x58bro’s high-leverage short on ETH/BTC or 0x0b8a’s 5x long on APE, whether they will increase positions, reduce positions, close out, or get liquidated, remains "to be observed." In such a high-leverage, highly differentiated emotional environment, what truly needs to be vigilant is the potential liquidation chain and the amplification effects of extreme market conditions: once one side makes concentrated wrong directional bets and high-leverage positions touch liquidation prices closely, it may trigger a chain reaction in a very short time, and this propagation speed often surpasses the updating rhythm of on-chain data.

Therefore, instead of "focusing on one whale and simply following its actions," a more rational approach is to view Hyperliquid as a visualized window of risk aggregation: by observing the structure of long and short whale positions, the flow of funds between on-chain and exchanges, and the relative changes in fees and activity between Ethereum and Hyperliquid, one can judge whether leverage risk is concentrating or alleviating; combined with personal risk tolerance and time cycles, one can decide whether and how to participate in this gamble, rather than treating any single whale's operation as the only action guide.

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