Hyperliquid Whale Makes Surprise U Turn

Jin Exits, Then Returns Within Hours

Prominent on-chain trader Garrett Jin (@GarrettBullish) made headlines on June 17 after abruptly exiting his entire Hyperliquid ($HYPE) position, only to reverse course less than a day later. According to on-chain data flagged by Lookonchain, Jin sold all 184,102 HYPE tokens at roughly $73.6 each, collecting around $13.55 million and locking in an estimated $2.83 million in profit. The move came with HYPE trading near record levels.

The exit initially looked like a clean rotation. Jin simultaneously opened a long position in UNI, the governance token of decentralized exchange Uniswap, at a time when UNI had climbed to the top of CoinGecko's most-searched list. But the pivot away from HYPE proved short-lived.

A Quick Change of Heart

Within hours, Jin was back buying $HYPE. On-chain data shows he had already repurchased 81,703 HYPE tokens worth roughly $6 million, suggesting a partial re-entry rather than a full reversal. The episode drew significant attention given the size of the position and the speed of the about-face.

Jin is one of the more closely watched traders in the Hyperliquid ecosystem. His current book also includes a 1,268 BTC long worth approximately $83 million and a 50,013 ZEC long worth roughly $25 million, reflecting a heavily leveraged, multi-asset approach. He has previously been linked by on-chain researchers to a much larger whale entity with a controversial history in crypto, though Jin has denied those claims.

The back-and-forth trade arrives at an active moment for $HYPE. The token hit an all-time high of $76.85 on June 16, 2026, driven by strong protocol metrics, growing spot ETF inflows, and rising perpetuals volume. HYPE has gained roughly 37.5% over the past seven days and carries a market cap above $16 billion, making it one of the larger DeFi tokens by valuation.

Whether Jin's re-entry signals renewed conviction in HYPE or simply reflects opportunistic short-term trading is unclear. What is clear is that movements of this scale, on a fully transparent on-chain venue, are difficult to ignore.

Sources:
Bitcoin.com News: Trader Garrett Jin Dumps $13.5M in HYPE
CoinMarketCap: Hyperliquid (HYPE) Price
CoinGecko: Hyperliquid (HYPE) Price and Market Data