Crypto Trader Takes Big Risks with $LINK, Leveraging Millions in Spot and Futures Positions

In a dramatic series of trades, a certain crypto trader who is quite prominent, and who is known for using high leverage, has notably and aggressively taken long positions in $LINK on various platforms and invested a total of over 12 million USDC in spot and futures positions.

These trades reflect both a bullish outlook on Chainlink ($LINK) and a clear willingness to engage in high-risk, high-reward strategies. But the trader’s moves come with substantial risk if the market doesn’t go their way; namely, the trader is now very much exposed to $LINK’s price movements, and if $LINK takes a nosedive, the trader is going to get liquidated.

It all started a mere 50 minutes ago when the trader sent 1.07 million USDC into Hyperliquid with plans to open a long position on $LINK at $14.41 each. But shortly thereafter, the market turned against them, and $LINK fell all the way down to $13.56, leading to a liquidation of their position. If anything, this really demonstrates the kind of volatility and risks associated with highly leveraged trades.

Even though the initial attempt had gone awry, the trader wasn’t having any of it. They funneled yet another 1.8 million USDC into Hyperliquid, beefing up their position once more. And this time, rather than playing with call options, the trader went straight for the gusto and opened a long $LINK position, worth an astonishing $23.91 million. They leveraged that to 10x at a price of $14. The liquidation price, if it must be reiterated, was set at a rather critical juncture: $13.3.

Yet, the trader continued with their aggressive tactics. Undeterred by their earlier liquidation, they opened a long position on LINK with an extraordinary amount of leverage on the GMX platform. They began this position with 300,000 USDC, but the size of the position was 6.9 million dollars. They were trading at 23x leverage with GMX, and it was a decentralized platform, but this wasn’t the only one that they were using simultaneously. They also had a centralized platform position that was available to us through their portal. GMX’s portal gave us a liquidation price of 13.30, which meant that if LINK did not recover back over 13.30, then this trader would be facing another liquidation.

Along with their leveraged futures positions, the trading entity made a sizable move in the opposite direction by entering the spot market. They deployed 2.1 million USDC to acquire 150,000 tokens of $LINK at an average price of $13.98. This portfolio addition brings the trading entity to a whole new level of exposure to the price of $LINK—in a way, an almost natural hedge against the pricing of $LINK in its futures contracts. Countering this natural hedge are the tokens themselves, which are presumably also priced in $LINK.

Expanding on this, the trader then laid out 12.1 million USDC to purchase 863,000 $LINK at a bit elevated price of $14.02. This investment yet again solidifies their bullish position on $LINK, amassing a sizable stash of the token at an average cost of about $14 each. All the while, despite the yoyo’ing nature of their futures positions, the trader’s considerable spot market holdings in $LINK provide a much more stable bulwark.

When viewed collectively, a trader’s actions can be said to reflect a strategy that is high-risk, high-reward, and combines the use of at least two different kinds of leveraged instruments: futures contracts, and investments in the spot market. This particular trader has over $31 million at stake in various positions, and has placed a colossal bet on the kind of price movement for $LINK that will either see the token rebound (preferably in a timely fashion) or stay stable at or above the $13.3 mark — the price at which a bunch of their positions could see them getting liquidated.

The multiple platforms—Hyperliquid and GMX—combined with substantial investments in the spot market highlight how aggressively leverage is being used. This is obviously a scheme common for making a fortune in a market where good old-fashioned long positions seem to be losing money.

Intelligently, I must say, the use of leverage here isn’t being restricted to just one platform. This highlights excellent diversification of sort across platforms. But there’s way more that’s twisted with this scheme. It could all well backfire with a market dip. A dip inevitably coming, like the one right now (roughly 10 hours after writing this).

It is also noteworthy that the trader’s decision to maintain simultaneous spot and futures positions allows them to take advantage of potential price movements in a risk-balanced fashion between the two. The futures positions, while highly leveraged, offer the potential for larger returns if $LINK rises, while the spot positions provide a more stable form of ownership that is less vulnerable to liquidation events.

Although the crypto market is still so very volatile, they have managed to find a high-risk, high-reward play that is diversified even within that one trade. They have purchased $1 million in LINK in the spot market and have taken on $7.5 million in liabilities. Comprising mostly of short position bitcoin futures, these liabilities — whose value declines as bitcoin’s price increases — are meant to hedge against the risk that $LINK will underperform while these far-from-zero liquidation prices remain firmly in place.

The result of this deal will be scrutinized closely because it underscores the razor-thin line between making big gains and taking substantial losses in the fast-and-furious world of crypto trading.

For traders and investors, $LINK’s price action is now something to watch closely. Will the risky-play trader emerge victorious, or will this go down as a big loss for the trader and for anyone else who might have $LINK in their portfolio? The future of $LINK is writ large on the outcome of this trade. High potential rewards. Altogether now: “At what risk?”

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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