Tornado Cash Whale Deposits $7 Million to Hyperliquid for Massive Bitcoin Long
An anonymous Tornado Cash whale deposited $7 million to Hyperliquid this morning, opening a massive Bitcoin long position with 20x leverage.
The wallet had previously been tracked to a chain of addresses linked to hackers who drained the derivatives platform Drift Protocol of $290 million in April 2026. Blockchain researchers caution against jumping to conclusions about the funds' origin, as the connection remains circumstantial.
Complex Movement of Funds
The transaction began with a brand-new address withdrawing 3,100 ETH from Tornado Cash. The trader then swapped all the Ether through CoW Swap, converting it to $6.92 million in USDC before transferring to Hyperliquid as collateral.
High-Leverage Bitcoin Bet
On Hyperliquid, the whale split the collateral in half, activated 20x cross leverage, and built a $26 million position consisting of $12.84 million in Bitcoin at $75,762.2 and a short position of 5,740 ETH worth $12.83 million.
This is a textbook dominance pair trade, where the investor couldn't care less whether the industry as a whole goes up or down and the only thing that matters is the spread - the price gap between the two largest coins.
Significant Risk
The bet is currently profitable as Bitcoin holds near local highs, with gains on the BTC long covering drawdowns from the ETH short. However, the 20x leverage creates substantial risk. Should Ethereum rise while Bitcoin stagnates, the position could be liquidated instantly.
The liquidation price is set at $37,014.09 for BTC and $3,343.60 for ETH. Should either price hit these levels, Hyperliquid's cross-margin system would force-close the orders, resulting in a total loss of the $6.92 million investment.
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