Hyperliquid whale identified as British hacker William Parker, ZachXBT says

Onchain sleuth ZachXBT said he had identified the mysterious whale who profited $20 million from highly leveraged trades on Hyperliquid and GMX as a British hacker going by the name William Parker.

On-chain sleuth ZachXBT has identified the mysterious whale who profited $20 million from highly leveraged trades on Hyperliquid and GMX as a British hacker going by the name William Parker.

According to ZachXBT's March 20 post, Parker — who was previously known as Alistair Packover before changing his name — was arrested last year for allegedly stealing around $1 million from two casinos in 2023.

Parker also made headlines a decade ago for allegations of hacking and gambling, the sleuth added.

It is abundantly clear WP/AP has not learned his lesson over the years after serving time for fraud and will likely continue gambling. This time around it was two casino's who fell victim to theft and had a combined $1m stolen. Those who gambled and lost to the "whale" can attest to his actions. https://t.co/r6qN2YfQ9v pic.twitter.com/0t8YFjN86v

— ZachXBT (@ZachXBT) March 20, 2023

The findings are based on a phone number provided by a person who allegedly received a payment from the whale trader's wallet address, ZachXBT said. He also noted that public wallet addresses associated with the whale trader received proceeds from past onchain phishing schemes.

Cointelegraph has not independently verified these claims.

Massive leveraged bets

The mysterious whale came to prominence after proflating approximately $20 million from highly leveraged trades — in some cases with up to 50x leverage — on decentralized perpetuals exchanges Hyperliquid and GMX.

On March 12, the trader intentionally liquidated an approximately $200 million Ether (ETH) long, causing Hyperliquid's liquidity pool to lose $4 million.

Hey guys, so the "whale" who lost $4m to the Hyperliquid liquidity pool and made a profit of $1.8m has been identified. It's British hacker William "Alistair Packover" Parker, who was arrested last year for stealing $1m from two casinos in 2023. Parker is no stranger to the news.

— ZachXBT (@ZachXBT) March 20, 2023

Meanwhile, the whale earned profits of some $1.8 million.

Hyperliquid said the liquidation was not an exploit but rather a predictable consequence of how the trading platform operates under extreme conditions.

The DEX later revised its collateral rules for traders with open positions to guard against such occurrences in the future.

On March 14, the whale took another multimillion-long position, this time on Chainlink (LINK).

Perpetual futures, or "perps," are leveraged futures contracts with no expiry date. Traders deposit margin collateral — typically USDC (USDC) for Hyperliquid — to secure open positions.