Hyperliquid Trader Qwatio Faces $3.7M Loss After Series of Ultra-Leveraged Crypto Shorts

A Hyperliquid trader known as Qwatio has suffered significant losses this past week, dropping nearly $3.7 million after placing highly leveraged short bets on bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), on-chain data reveals.

Currently, Qwatio holds a 40x leveraged short position on BTC and a 25x leveraged short on ETH.

Over the weekend, Qwatio was liquidated five times, as both BTC and ETH rallied sharply, pushing prices to $108,200.53 for bitcoin and $2,557.21 for ether.

Qwatio is known for trading in a high-risk style similar to that of James Wynn, previously betting heavily on long positions in BTC and ETH earlier this year. The trader’s current strategy represents a sharp reversal, shifting toward aggressive shorting as the market’s volatility has increased.

Crypto circles first took notice of Qwatio earlier this year, when they opened $200 million worth of BTC and ETH positions at 50x leverage just hours before U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a crypto reserve—a move that ultimately acted as a bullish catalyst for digital asset prices.

Beyond BTC and ETH trades, Qwatio was also a prominent early investor in the Melania memecoin during its initial launch earlier in 2025.

According to data from CoinGlass, the broader market has seen approximately $50 million in ETH shorts and $31 million in BTC shorts liquidated over the last 24 hours, underscoring the intense volatility and risk currently gripping crypto derivatives markets.