Peak Degen Warfare? Alleged POPCAT Manipulation Hits Hyperliquid with $4.9M Loss

Hyperliquid reportedly took a atrocious indebtedness of $4.9 cardinal owed to alleged POPCAT manipulation.

Updated Nov 13, 2025, 6:49 a.m. Published Nov 13, 2025, 6:48 a.m.

Decentralized derivatives level Hyperliquid suffered a $4.9 cardinal nonaccomplishment Wednesday aft a cautiously orchestrated manipulation of the POPCAT token, according to information shared by blockchain sleuth Lookonchain.

The attacker withdrew $3 cardinal successful USDC from centralized speech OKX, splitting it crossed 19 wallets to make a monolithic leveraged agelong presumption valued betwixt $20 cardinal and $30 cardinal successful POPCAT.

The attacker past placed $20 cardinal bargain bid adjacent $0.21, pulling successful liquidity and pushing prices higher. Once the presumption was sufficiently inflated, the attacker abruptly pulled the bargain orders, causing a clang successful POPCAT prices, which led to cascading liquidations of leveraged positions, including the attacker’s ain $3 cardinal collateral, which was gone successful seconds.

Hyperliquid’s community-owned liquidity vault (HLP), which acts arsenic a information nett for liquidations, had to sorb the remaining losses aft collateral was exhausted, starring to a atrocious indebtedness of $4.9 million, deepening the interaction connected the starring perpetual focused decentralized exchange.

CoinDesk reached retired to Hyperliquid for remark via X.

One marketplace subordinate described the occurrence arsenic "peak degen warfare."

"Someone torched 3M conscionable to nuke liquidity and resistance HLP into a 5M loss. Classic manufactured request illusion followed by a flush. Nothing magical here. Just an attacker exploiting bladed extent and automated LP absorption," the subordinate said connected X.

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