Shorting HYPE Lost $40 Million—How Much Ammo Does loracle, the Biggest Meme Short, Have Left?
- Core Viewpoint: loracle, an early contributor to Hyperliquid, shifted from the largest HYPE long to the largest short, with total contract losses of approximately $25 million. His "infinite ammo" was actually proceeds from selling HYPE spot—HYPE giveth, and HYPE taketh away.
- Key Elements:
- loracle currently holds short positions in two major meme coins, PONS and CASHCAT, with unrealized gains of about $2.3 million, but his total historical contract losses still stand at $25 million.
- Starting with $7.44 million in principal, he turned a profit of $42 million over 10 months, earning $11.5 million in a single week in early 2026, once making him the largest HYPE long on-chain.
- He turned to shorting HYPE in late April. After HYPE hit a new high of $75 in early June, he was forced to close his position, losing over $46 million in a single month and wiping out all his contract profits.
- His subsequent trades were chaotic: on June 3 he went long HYPE at a high, then closed at a low in July for a $2.3 million loss; in August he opened another short, and is currently sitting on an unrealized loss of about $9 million.
- He once staked nearly 4.95 million HYPE (worth a peak of $385 million), but has been selling since April, now holding only about 336,000 tokens (worth about $26.2 million).
- Overseas KOLs once raised eight figures aiming to "hunt" his short positions, but took no actual action; loracle even publicly called on Robinhood's CEO to coordinate with market makers to increase liquidity.
Original | Odaily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Golem (@web3_golem)
Over the past month or two, the Meme market has been booming, with many Meme coins surpassing $100 million in market cap on-chain. It seems everyone riding the wave is immersed in the joy of a Meme bull market. Yet one stubborn whale has chosen to defy the trend, shorting this cycle's hottest Meme coins despite the pressure.
That whale is loracle, the undisputed number one short seller of Meme coins this cycle.
According to on-chain data, loracle currently holds a 3x leveraged PONS short on Hyperliquid, with a position of 27.75 million PONS worth over $16.5 million, at an average entry price of $0.665. Due to the recent broad Meme pullback, he was sitting on unrealized gains of about $1 million as of press time. At the same time, loracle is also the number one short seller of CASHCAT, holding a 3x leveraged CASHCAT short with a position of 36.3 million CASHCAT worth over $6.2 million, at an average entry price of $0.2, with unrealized gains of about $1.3 million as of press time.
When PONS hit its all-time high, loracle's PONS short was down over $6.9 million at its peak. Overseas KOL MLM once tried to assemble a team to "hunt" loracle, posting on X claiming to have raised eight figures in capital, though no action was ever taken. loracle doesn't seem the least bit nervous about his positions being public—he even publicly called on Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev to coordinate with market makers to add liquidity to the PONS/USDG market.
Don't be fooled by loracle's current profitable Meme shorts—when you tally up all his on-chain positions and Hyperliquid historical P&L, loracle is still down roughly $25 million overall. loracle's main on-chain trading addresses:
- 0xefe4c06b6d310978bead596e1798a4fc1d9d194b
- 2.0x8def9f50456c6c4e37fa5d3d57f108ed23992dae
The famous "infinite ammo" contract degen Brother Machi has lost about $30 million in total on Hyperliquid to date, and loracle's peak unrealized loss (around $70 million) even surpassed Machi's. Machi and loracle are two sides of the same coin—one loves going long, the other loves going short—but what they have in common is that both seem to have infinite ammo.
So, what exactly is loracle's background, and where does his money come from? Odaily will dig into this whale's trading history and past in this article.
Both an Early Hyperliquid Contributor and the Biggest HYPE Short
loracle is an early contributor to the Hyperliquid ecosystem. In 2024, he founded hypurr.fun, a Telegram-based launchpad for the Hyperliquid ecosystem that generated considerable wealth effects at the time. (Related reading: Hyperliquid Ecosystem Takes Off: A Quick Guide to Pump-like Platform Hypurr)
After hypurr.fun collapsed, loracle turned to high-leverage perpetual contract trading on Hyperliquid. He has an aggressive style, with position sizes often reaching tens of millions of dollars.
Starting with roughly $7.44 million in principal, loracle traded HYPE longs and BTC/ETH swings. After more than 10 months of effort, by early 2026 his account profits had rapidly grown to about $42 million. He once made about $11.5 million in a single week, briefly becoming the largest HYPE long on-chain.
Subsequently, loracle diversified his trading, taking positions in NVDA, PAXG, crude oil, ZEC, TON, LIT, and others, combining longs and shorts. He was once called a crypto-native macro trader, and by around May of this year his cumulative profits were still around $37 million.
Shorting HYPE Lost Over $40 Million
But then things took a turn. The former Hyperliquid ecosystem contributor and biggest long turned into the biggest HYPE short, with notional positions once reaching hundreds of millions of dollars, and as of now his position is still down about $9 million.
In late April, loracle opened his first position—a 5x leveraged HYPE short worth about $11 million—when HYPE was trading at around $40. Entering May, HYPE continued to rise, and the unconvinced loracle kept shorting HYPE. By late May, reports said loracle's HYPE short position had reached $103 million.
In early June, HYPE hit an all-time high of $75, and loracle finally buckled under pressure and began closing his position. In just about one month, the over $40 million in perpetual contract profits loracle had built up over more than 10 months were completely wiped out. By the time he fully closed on June 2, he had lost over $46 million on HYPE.
After this major loss, loracle's contract trading gradually started to go off the rails…
With his judgment clouded by losses, loracle pulled a classic retail move—he flipped to longing HYPE. According to on-chain data, after closing his HYPE short, on June 3 loracle opened a long position of 1.36 million HYPE worth about $17 million at an average entry price of $70.5. However, loracle not only opened this long at the very top but also closed it at the very bottom. HYPE continued to decline in July, and loracle finally closed his HYPE long on July 30 at an average price of $54.57, losing about $2.3 million.
Just days after closing his HYPE long, in early August loracle opened another 3x leveraged HYPE short, with the notional value of his HYPE short peaking at over $54 million. As HYPE prices rose again in late August, loracle began closing his short and reducing his position. As of now, loracle still holds 363,300 HYPE worth about $28 million, with an unrealized loss of about $9 million and a liquidation price of $166.
Looking at total historical P&L, loracle has lost over $40 million trading HYPE, far outweighing his profits on BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies and commodities.
The Source of Infinite Ammo Is Still HYPE—Once Staked Nearly 5 Million HYPE
As of press time, loracle's total contract losses are about $25 million. However, some on-chain analysts previously argued that loracle wasn't naked shorting HYPE, because as an early Hyperliquid contributor he holds a large amount of HYPE spot, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, most of which is staked. Therefore, loracle's HYPE shorts were once considered hedging operations.
Such a massive HYPE spot holding is also the source of loracle's infinite contract ammo. According to multiple on-chain analysts' tracking, the following two HYPE staking addresses belong to loracle:
- 0xe44bd27c9f10fa2f89fdb3ab4b4f0e460da29ea8
- 0xfae95f601f3a25ace60d19dbb929f2a5c57e3571
According to statistics, at their peak these two addresses had a total of 4.948 million HYPE staked. At current HYPE prices, that would be worth $385 million.
But today, the 3.35 million HYPE initially staked in address 2 has been fully withdrawn, and address 1 has only 96,940 HYPE remaining in staking. Adding the 240,000 HYPE held in trading address 2 mentioned above, loracle currently holds about 336,000 HYPE in total, worth about $26.2 million.
From this perspective, loracle would have been better off simply holding HYPE spot consistently rather than trying to prove himself through contract trading. But that's all hindsight—in reality, the principal for his massive losses mainly came from selling HYPE spot.
Starting in April of this year, loracle began selling off his HYPE holdings. In early April, loracle sold about 450,000 HYPE at an average price of $35, worth about $15 million. In May, loracle unlocked a cumulative 3 tranches totaling 2.008 million HYPE. In clearly traceable on-chain records, he dumped 557,000 HYPE on May 21 (the day HYPE first broke its all-time high), worth about $33.35 million.
loracle's story is truly "made by HYPE, broken by HYPE." The notion that you'll always bounce back as long as you don't leave the gambling table—at least judging from the experiences of past Hyperliquid whales—doesn't hold up. Cases of going from universal acclaim to a zeroed-out account are everywhere. In the end, how will the story of this former number one HYPE short and current number one Meme short play out? Odaily will continue to follow.
