A trader known on-chain as loracle is holding leveraged short positions in meme tokens PONS and CASHCAT while carrying roughly $25 million in cumulative perpetual-futures losses, according to blockchain records cited in the source material. The positions have returned to unrealized profit after earlier swings, but they extend a high-risk trading pattern that has already erased more than $40 million in gains from earlier bets on Hyperliquid’s HYPE token.
Loracle’s PONS position is a 3x leveraged short covering 27.75 million tokens, valued at more than $16.5 million at an average entry price of $0.665. The account also held a 3x short on 36.30 million CASHCAT, worth over $6.2 million, with an average entry price of $0.20.
At the reporting timestamp, the PONS trade showed about $1 million in unrealized profit, while the CASHCAT position had roughly $1.3 million in paper gains. Those figures reflect the current mark-to-market value of positions that remain open, rather than realized trading profits. During PONS’s all-time high, the short was carrying an unrealized loss exceeding $6.9 million.
The trades have drawn attention partly because of their size relative to the liquidity commonly available in newly issued meme tokens. A social-media account using the name MLM said on X that an eight-figure pool of capital had been assembled to target loracle’s PONS short. No subsequent coordinated trading action was described in the material.
Loracle also appealed publicly to Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev on X, asking for coordination with market makers to provide liquidity for the PONS/USDG market. The request points to the practical problem facing large leveraged positions in fast-moving tokens: exiting a trade can be difficult when available order-book depth is thin, even if the position is profitable on paper.
Wallets connected in the source material to loracle’s activity include 0xefe4c06b6d310978bead596e1798a4fc1d9d194b and 0x8def9f50456c6c4e37fa5d3d57f108ed23992dae.
HYPE trades wiped out earlier gains
The PONS and CASHCAT shorts follow a much larger reversal in loracle’s HYPE trading. Blockchain activity described loracle as an early participant in the Hyperliquid ecosystem and the creator of hypurr.fun, a Telegram-based launchpad connected to Hyperliquid that operated in 2024 before shutting down.
After hypurr.fun ended operations, loracle shifted into large perpetual-futures positions, often using leverage and building exposures worth tens of millions of dollars. Perpetual futures are derivatives that track an asset’s price without a fixed expiry date; leverage magnifies both gains and losses by allowing a trader to control a larger position than the collateral posted.
The source material said loracle began with about $7.44 million in principal and increased profits to roughly $42 million over more than 10 months through HYPE long positions and swing trades in Bitcoin and Ethereum. One week reportedly generated $11.5 million in profit. Later trades expanded to assets including Nvidia-linked contracts, PAXG, oil, Zcash, Toncoin and LIT.
By around May, cumulative profits were said to have reached roughly $37 million. Those gains became vulnerable when loracle adopted a bearish view of HYPE as the token continued rising.
Loracle reportedly opened an initial HYPE short in late April, when HYPE traded near $40. The position had a notional value of about $11 million and used 5x leverage. As HYPE rose through May, loracle increased the short exposure, which reached an estimated $103 million in notional value by late May.
When HYPE climbed to a record high of $75 in early June, the short was deeply underwater. The source material dated loracle’s full exit from the position to June 2 and estimated losses from the trade at more than $46 million. It said more than $40 million in previous perpetual-futures profits were erased in roughly a month.
Repeated reversal added to the drawdown
Loracle switched direction shortly after closing the HYPE short. On June 3, the trader opened a HYPE long for 1.36 million tokens, worth about $17 million at an average entry price of $70.50, according to the on-chain account. The position was closed on July 30 at an average price of $54.57, producing a further estimated loss of $2.3 million.
In early August, loracle opened another 3x leveraged short on HYPE. The position’s peak notional value reportedly exceeded $54 million. At the reporting point, the account still held a short exposure of 363,300 HYPE valued at about $28 million, with an unrealized loss near $9 million and a liquidation price of $166.
Taken together, the source material attributed more than $40 million of loracle’s historical losses to HYPE trading alone, outweighing earlier gains from Bitcoin, Ethereum and commodity-linked positions. It also estimated that the trader’s peak unrealized drawdown reached about $70 million, placing the account among the more severe visible losses tracked on the network.
Staked HYPE supplied trading capital
The scale of loracle’s trading appears tied to a large HYPE spot position accumulated earlier in Hyperliquid’s growth. Two staking addresses associated with loracle — 0xe44bd27c9f10fa2f89fdb3ab4b4f0e460da29ea8 and 0xfae95f601f3a25ace60d19dbb929f2a5c57e3571 — were reported to have staked a combined 4.948 million HYPE at their peak.
Using the HYPE price referenced in the source material, that stake was valued at about $385 million. The holdings gave loracle substantial collateral and a potential source of capital for large derivatives positions, though staking balances and realized trading capital are not necessarily the same.
Sales began in April, when loracle reportedly sold about 450,000 HYPE at an average price of $35, raising roughly $15 million. In May, the trader allegedly unlocked 2.008 million HYPE across three transactions, including a May 21 sale of 557,000 HYPE valued at about $33.35 million.
The second staking address later fully withdrew an initial 3.35 million HYPE position, according to the tracking data. The first address retained 96,940 staked HYPE, while the second trading address held about 240,000 HYPE. That left loracle with an estimated 336,000 HYPE, valued at about $26.2 million under the price used in the source material.
The remaining PONS and CASHCAT shorts leave loracle exposed to the same market mechanics that damaged the earlier HYPE positions: volatile tokens, concentrated liquidity and leverage that can rapidly turn a modest price move into a multi-million-dollar change in account equity.
Before using high leverage like loracle, learn essential risk management strategies to protect your capital.
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