According to data provided by analytics platform Onchain Lens, a cryptocurrency whale recently deposited $4.4 million into decentralized trading platform HyperLiquid in order to open a leveraged short position on XRP, the fourth-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
The whale has gone short on the Ripple-linked cryptocurrency with 8x leverage.
At press time, XRP is changing hands at $2.57 after spiking by 1.1% over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency has added more than 20% over the past week.
A 20x ETH short
The same market participant has also made a massive bet against Ethereum (ETH), the leading altcoin. His bet against ETH is much riskier given that this specific position was opened with 20x leverage.
The enormous short comes after ETH has gained 40% over the past week.
XRP sellers are being "absorbed"
According to CryptoQuant, there was some aggressive selling on Binance on Tuesday. However, this selling was being absorbed, meaning that the Ripple-affiliated token might experience a potential breakout. Despite this, the short opened by the HyerLiquid whale could still be seen as an ominous sign.
$8 million worth of liquidations
According to data provided by CoinGlass, roughly $8 million worth of XRP has been liquidated over the past 24 hours. Long positions account for the vast majority of this sum, with a total of $5.8 million being wiped out.
XRP futures open interest (OI) currently stands at $5.5 billion, experiencing a substantial increase over the past week. This essentially means that traders are placing more speculative bets on the cryptocurrency in either direction.
