Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has uncovered the identity of the mysterious Hyperliquid whale that recently profited ~$20 million. The trader, who opened multiple highly leveraged positions on Hyperliquid and GMX, attracted significant attention in March 2025.
ZachXBT Reveals Identity of Hyperliquid Whale
According to a recent series of X posts, ZachXBT, a blockchain researcher, named William Parker as the trader behind the whale wallet. After being implicated in various criminal schemes, Parker is also now said to be linked to several leveraged trades on Hyperliquid and GMX, two platforms that are associated with decentralized finance (DeFi).
The mysterious whale profited $20 million through a combination of high-leverage trades on these platforms.
The investigation tracked Parker’s involvement, revealing that the wallet 0xe4d3 was responsible for significant trades, including a large ETH and BTC long position on 50X leverage just before a major crypto-related announcement.
Tracing the Whale’s Trading Activity
ZachXBT’s investigation found several on-chain transactions by the whale between January and march 2025. The activity of the trader on both Hyperliquid and GMX is something that attracted a lot of attention to the community because of the high leverage.
For instance, the trader entered a $200 million long position in ETH which resulted to $4 million loss of one of the Hyperliquid’s vaults.
This massive swapping led to discussions among the users of the platform about a possible hack. According to Hyperliquid, there was no breach of protocol that led to the losses, it resulted from a trader withdrawing their cash and reducing the margin to the maintenance level. This ultimately led the trader gaining $1.8 million on the transaction while the vault lost $4 million.
Connection to Alleged Illicit Activities
The subsequent investigation disclosed that Parker had a criminal record under the identity of Alistair Packover for fraud and gambling. In 2023, Parker was involved in another case where he was charged with theft having stolen about one million dollars from two casinos. He was convicted in Finland for these offences, however, his criminal past can be traced back to the early 2010’s, where he was notorious in the UK for hacking and fraud offences.
According to the reports, Parker stole the money in 2017 from a casino game, as well as phishing attacks, and then used the money to invest in Hyperliquid and turn it into a $20 million profit. This timeline further establishes a link from his previous criminal behaviour to the suspicious trades identified on-chain.
Concurrently, ZachXBT’s investigation also extended beyond just the whale’s trades. By tracing related wallet addresses, he identified several counterparties tied to major players in the DeFi space, including Roobet and Binance. These findings suggest that the whale was part of a larger network of transactions and activities. Further, ZachXBT traced the source of the funds to withdrawals from Solana-based casinos, where Parker allegedly exploited a game vulnerability.
Security Concerns and Platform Response
Following the loss of funds from Hyperliquid’s vault, the platform took swift action to adjust its risk management policies. Hyperliquid announced that it would update the maximum leverage on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to 40x and 25x, respectively.
These changes are aimed at increasing maintenance margin requirements for larger positions, which could prevent similar moves in the future.
The adjustments are a direct response to the risks associated with high-leverage trades, especially those that involve significant amounts of borrowed capital.
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