High-Profile Trader @qwatio Causes $436K Loss on Hyperliquid

A trader known as @qwatio has recently gained significant attention on the Hyperliquid platform, leading to a series of counter-trading and liquidations. This trader, previously identified by ZachXBT as William Parker, has been involved in aggressive trading of MELANIA and other tokens.

@qwatio, who has been inactive on social media since 2015, has returned with high-profile positions on Hyperliquid. This trader is part of a new trend of high-profile traders, joining the likes of James Wynn and Aguila Trades.

The trader has a history of using multiple wallets, causing significant disruption on Hyperliquid, particularly by draining liquidity pools. One notable incident involved the deliberate manipulation of the JELLY token to drain its liquidity pool.

In the past few months, @qwatio has used four known addresses, with three of them now inactive. The latest known address is currently $436K underwater due to short positions on BTC and ETH, with a notional value above $210M. There are no clear signs of deliberate counter-trading this time.

The trader has shown readiness to maintain these positions, posting $4.5M USDC collateral to extend the short positions and avoid liquidation. Despite six liquidations in the past three days, the trader is considered to be in gambling mode.

Hyperliquid has gained fame as a top venue for derivative trading, often competing with major centralized exchanges in terms of volumes and open interest. In June, the platform's open interest was $7.2B, and it generated $2.1M in fees, surpassing top apps and networks like Ethereum and Solana.

The platform has seen significant activity, with $6.8B in 24-hour volumes and over 500K daily active users. This activity is driven by a mix of organic traffic and speculation about a potential second airdrop of HYPE tokens.

Since its launch, Hyperliquid has allowed whales to withdraw over $81B, with over $46B in liquidated positions. As of June 2025, the platform still carried over 60% of decentralized perpetual swaps traffic. The success of Hyperliquid has inspired other attempts to replicate its model.

The platform uses more than 64% of all USDC on Arbitrum for liquidity purposes, drawing in a total of $3.56B USDC, with around $2.91B remaining as available liquidity. The native token HYPE, which peaked above $45, currently trades around $37 and is closely watched for a potential rebound.

HYPE retains open interest above $1.5B, with $1.1B on the Hyperliquid exchange. Short positions make up about 38% of the open interest, reflecting expectations of further correction from peak prices. The recent high-profile trades on Hyperliquid have drawn attention to the platform, with some speculating that these trades are deliberate attempts to boost its visibility.