Andrew Kang's Big Long

‍

An address funded by Mechanism Capital founder Andrew Kang, 0xBb87, deposited $2.5M onto perpetuals DEX, Hyperliquid yesterday, opening a 40x levered BTC long trade. The position grew to a value of 1,292 BTC or $100M at the time, with a liquidation price of $77,248. The position was opened shortly after a post from US President Donald Trump on Truth Social, saying that it was “a great time to buy”.

Using 40x leverage is an extremely high-risk strategy. It magnifies the position's value to $100M from a $2.5M deposit, but it also means that even a small price movement in the wrong direction would be enough to trigger a full liquidation, wiping out the entire $2.5M.

‍

‍

The timing of the trade, immediately following a presidential social media post, was a significant gamble. It staked a massive position on the idea that the post was a precursor to a market-moving announcement, rather than just market commentary.

While they were almost liquidated by an early market move by BTC, the position was ultimately saved by Trump’s announcement of a 90-day pause in all tariffs except on China, which resulted in a market-wide rally. The trader later closed out ~20% of his position, realizing a profit of ~$2.5M. The remainder of the position is being closed out over time via TWAP orders.

‍

‍

The market-wide rally provided the exact upward momentum needed to save the heavily leveraged position from its liquidation price. This event highlights how susceptible highly leveraged trades are to broad macroeconomic news, where political announcements can be the difference between a total loss and a major gain.

Closing the position using TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) orders is a methodical way to exit. This strategy breaks the large position into smaller, automated sales over a set period. It is used to minimize market impact, as selling $100M worth of BTC at once would likely cause the price to crash.