On August 27, 2025, a sharp increase in the price of the Plasma token (XPL) occurred on the Hyperliquid exchange, rising by over 200%, which attracted the attention of the cryptocurrency community and sparked discussions about possible market manipulations. A key role in this was played by an unknown whale with the address 0xb9, who opened a large long position and triggered mass liquidations of traders who were betting on a decline.
This is reported by Finway
Details of the Operation and Players’ Profits
According to analyst ai_9684xtpa, the address 0xb9 began accumulating long positions as early as August 24, but the main surge occurred on August 27 at 05:35 Hong Kong time. The size of the bet was so large that it effectively “cleared” the order book and liquidated almost all traders in short positions. Within a minute, 0xb9 realized a net profit of about $16 million, while the total profit of the group of addresses involved in the manipulation amounted to $46.1 million.
“According to analysts, four main addresses participated in the manipulation, resulting in a profit of $46.1 million.”
The bet by 0xb9 was financed from two other wallets – 0x5dE ($4.99 million USDC) and 0xae ($10.98 million USDC). The price of XPL on the Hyperliquid pre-market surged from $0.6 to $1.8, before retracting to previous levels. According to CoinGlass, the daily liquidation volume for this position reached $17.16 million.
Rumors of Involvement and Market Reaction
In the crypto community, there have been speculations about a possible connection between the address 0xb9 and TRON founder Justin Sun, as this wallet had previously transferred Ethereum to an address associated with Sun. However, there is currently no credible evidence that he is behind the manipulations.
Analyst ai_9684xtpa also noted several other addresses that realized significant profits from the sharp rise in XPL: 0xe4, 0x00, and 0x89. At the time of writing, 0xb9 continues to hold an open long position of $9.3 million with an unrealized profit of over $1.23 million, according to Hyperscan.
The situation has sparked active discussions among traders, who emphasize that such volatility and manipulations have become possible due to the thin order book on the Hyperliquid pre-market. This creates favorable conditions for market manipulations by large players.
It is worth noting that a similar situation was observed with the World Liberty Financial token (WLFI), whose price also sharply surged to $0.41. Analysts point out that such fluctuations on centralized exchanges are rare and draw attention to the risks for small traders.
The discussion of the situation continues, and the community is closely monitoring further developments surrounding XPL and possible changes in the exchange’s policies to prevent similar market manipulations.