POPCAT Price Crashes 25% After $30M Manipulation on Hyperliquid Exchange

The DeFi market was thrown into chaos after Hyperliquid faced a sudden $30 million trading meltdown, caused by just one trader’s $3 million leveraged bet on POPCAT.

The move sent shockwaves across the market, as the POPCAT meme coin crashed nearly 25%, dropping from $0.20 to $0.12, and causing over $5 million in losses for Hyperliquid’s liquidity pool (HLP).

What started as a bold trade quickly turned into a disaster.

The Setup Behind POPCAT’s Pump-and-Dump Trader

According to DeFi analyst Hanzo, the situation began when an unknown trader withdrew about $3 million in USDC from OKX and deposited the funds across 19 wallets on Hyperliquid.

Using 10x leverage, the trader opened huge long positions on POPCAT, reaching nearly $30 million in exposure. The move caught attention across trading circles as POPCAT’s price began to rise sharply.

But that wasn’t all. To make the trade appear genuine, the same trader reportedly placed massive buy orders worth $20–$30 million at an average price of $0.21 on other exchanges. 

This created a convincing illusion of demand, luring real traders to jump in, unaware they were chasing a fake buy wall.

From Fake Demand to Instant $5M Loss

Just as the retail buying picked up, the whale canceled all his fake orders, removing the illusion of demand. The market reacted immediately, and POPCAT’s price crashed by nearly 25% in minutes, triggering mass liquidations.

The trader reportedly lost his entire $3 million collateral, while Hyperliquid’s Liquidity Pool (HLP) was forced to step in to contain the fallout. The system automatically absorbed the whale’s $26–28 million in long positions to prevent a wider market collapse. 

And by the end of the event, the HLP had suffered an additional $4.9 million loss, pushing the platform into full damage control mode.

Exchange Steps to Control Damage

To stabilize the situation, Hyperliquid’s team manually intervened, closing leftover positions and pausing its Arbitrum bridge to prevent further stress on liquidity. Deposits and withdrawals, however, remained open.

While some users believe this was a failed trading stunt gone wrong, others suspect it was a deliberate stress test or an attempt to exploit Hyperliquid’s liquidity system.

However, this marks the third major market incident for Hyperliquid in 2025.

Popcat Price Plunge by 25%

Following the reckless trading incident, Popcat faced a massive wave of liquidations, nearly $65 million in the past 24 hours, with about $62 million coming from long positions alone. 

The sudden sell-off triggered panic, sending the token’s price crashing from a high of $0.20 to around $0.12.

The bearish sentiment now mirrors the broader market trend affecting small-cap tokens. If current support levels fail to hold, analysts warn Popcat’s price could slip below the $0.10 mark.