Four large investors, referred to as 'whales', have been accused of price manipulation regarding tokens from the new Plasma blockchain platform, raising significant concerns about the reliability of decentralized trading platforms.
Allegations of Price Manipulation
According to Spot On Chain, four whale addresses profited a combined $47.5 million after the Plasma (XPL) token soared 200% to over $1.80 in mere minutes on the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange. The largest whale, wallet 0xb9c, gained over $15 million and was described as the 'main orchestrator'.
> 'Whale manipulation on #Hyperliquid sent $XPL soaring 200%. This marks one of the wildest short squeezes and wealth redistributions we've seen!', the post stated.
Despite this profit, the manipulation allegations raise concerns regarding the safety and reliability of decentralized platforms.
Trader Losses
The nearly $48 million profit came at the expense of several other traders, with one unfortunate trader reporting a loss of $4.5 million on his XPL position. Another trader, X user CBB, admitted to losing $2.5 million on his XPL short position, stating that he is 'never touching isolated markets' again.
Potential Involved Parties
An on-chain analyst pointed to a possible connection between one whale and Tron Network founder Justin Sun. According to analyst MLM, wallet 0xb9c 'is presumed to be associated with Justin Sun', initiating long positions on millions of XPL tokens, which 'cleared the entire order book and liquidated everyone'.
> 'He then started closing his long, making $16M in just one minute', the analyst remarked, adding that the address is still running a leveraged position worth over $8.6 million.
These events raise critical questions about decentralized trading platforms and the need for further analysis of their vulnerabilities. The revelations of price manipulation could lead to a reevaluation of rules and improvements in security systems to protect traders.
