Crypto traders on perpetuals exchange Hyperliquid are placing increasingly aggressive leveraged bets that bitcoin will break above $75,000 after a strong rally at the start of the week.
Bitcoin rose to around $71,000 on Tuesday, up from around $65,000 when BTC futures opened on Sunday evening. The move has reignited calls for a retest of recent highs after being rejected near $74,000 last week.
Onchain data shows that several large traders – often referred to as “whales” – are opening highly leveraged long positions on Hyperliquid as prices rise.
A trader has ether (ETH) and bitcoin long positions worth $194 million with unrealized gains and losses of about $6.5 million. Another account has $103 million worth of long positions across a host of trading pairs, betting on a broader crypto breakout as opposed to a major-dominated rally.
Positions on Hyperliquid are typically opened with leverage, allowing traders to amplify exposure. One wallet, for example, opened a series of trades using 20x leverage, meaning a $1 million account could control a $20 million bitcoin position. This trader opened 20x leveraged longs on 600 BTC worth about $42.5 million while simultaneously taking a 20x long position on 20,000 ETH worth about $41.2 million.
The whale also appears to accumulate ether in spot markets. Data shows that the address used $21 million in USDC to buy 10,158 ETH at an average price of $2,067 shortly before opening the derivative positions.
Other nine-digit long positions show one thing: Crypto traders are confident that this breakout will stick and won’t be a bull trap like last week.
A separate wallet, 0x985f, takes a different macro stance. The address deposited $9.5 million in USDC into Hyperliquid within a five-hour window before opening 20x leveraged short positions on oil futures, including about $8.17 million in crude oil contracts (CL) and $6.15 million in Brent crude.
The same trader also opened short positions across several crypto tokens, including HYPE, PUMP, XPL, APT and ASTER, suggesting a broader bearish stance on select altcoins, while major traders are concentrating bullish bets on bitcoin and ether.
The positioning highlights how decentralized derivatives platforms such as Hyperliquid have become a hub for large leveraged bets during periods of strong bitcoin momentum.
A break above $75,000 could force short sellers to cover and accelerate the rally, while a move lower would quickly test the conviction of traders piling into nine-figure leveraged longs.
