Ether Short Blown Up: "pensionusdt.eth" Liquidated for Nearly $24M in 12 Seconds as Crypto Rallies

A wallet known as "pensionusdt.eth" was forced out of a two-month ether short early Thursday after a broad rally in major tokens, taking a loss of almost $24 million. The address had been one of this year's standout short sellers, previously racking up about $49 million in gains from bearish crypto bets. Recent wins included nearly $6 million from closing a 60,000 ETH short in June, $3.6 million on a 1,400 BTC short the same month, and $1.7 million on another bitcoin short in March. The latest wipeout erased roughly half of the wallet's total profits. Data from Hyperliquid shows the liquidation occurred between 04:51:03 and 04:51:15, executed through five forced sales. The platform sold 9,989 ETH at $2,193, then 20,698 ETH at $2,209, followed by 15,830 ETH at $2,214, then 1,871 ETH at $2,236. For the final 1,417 ETH, bids disappeared and Hyperliquid moved the remainder into a dedicated backstop fund. Ether climbed $43 during the 12-second cascade. The trader's own forced buying contributed to the move, and each incremental rise increased the cost of closing the remaining portions. The short had been held for 1,445 hours, a little over two months, during a stretch when bitcoin traded below $65,000 and bearish positioning had looked straightforward. That changed after Wednesday's Treasury buyback announcement, which coincided with a sharp risk-on move: ether jumped 18% in the past 24 hours and bitcoin surged from about $64,000 to nearly $70,000. The account is now effectively drained. Hyperliquid's leaderboard lists the wallet—trading under the display name 'Penision Fund'—with $35.61 remaining and down 100% over 30 days, reflecting $16.48 million in losses on $111.76 million of trading volume over that period. It was not the biggest hit of the day. Hyperliquid also saw a $48.8 million bitcoin position liquidated, as total forced short closures across the market reached $2.74 billion in 24 hours—the largest liquidation wave in records dating back to 2021.