Hyperliquid’s XPL Market Faces $17 Million Liquidation Surge Amid Whale Moves

- Whale manipulation drives 2.5x price surge in Hyperliquid’s XPL perpetual market. - Short squeezes lead to $17 million in trader liquidations. On August 27, 2025 (UTC), Hyperliquid’s pre-launch perpetual market for the XPL token experienced a dramatic 2.5x price surge. According to The Block on August 27, this surge was caused by whales manipulating the order book. As a result, the XPL/USD pair soared to $1.80 on Hyperliquid’s platform, far exceeding its $0.55 price on Binance’s pre-market platform. This price difference triggered approximately $17 million in liquidations, primarily affecting short-side positions. The volatility activated Hyperliquid’s auto-deleveraging system to mitigate bad debt risks. The platform later confirmed that its systems functioned as intended and emphasized that the liquidations were limited to the XPL market, with no technical malfunctions occurring. In response to the incident, Hyperliquid announced new safeguards to minimize the impact of sudden price swings and market manipulation. Planned measures include setting a hard cap on the mark price for its "hyperps" pre-launch perpetuals and integrating external market data to enhance price stability. The market event stirred community debate over risk management practices in permissionless ecosystems. While some criticized Hyperliquid's handling of liquidity risks, others praised the platform's system stability under volatile conditions. The controversy underscores broader concerns regarding market manipulation and instability in decentralized financial networks. As of August 27 at 17:15 UTC, Hyperliquid (HYPE) was trading at $49.931, with its 24-hour trading volume up 5.791%. This increase was likely influenced by heightened market attention following the XPL incident.