Papertrade trader gains $1M then loses $450K in leveraged shorts
A trader on Papertrade, a new perpetual futures exchange built on Hyperliquid, earned more than $1 million in the first hours after launch. The wallet executed 305 trades and reached $1.73 million in peak gains before 30 short positions were liquidated, causing a $450,000 loss. Papertrade offers up to 1,000x leverage and pays winning traders from a pool funded by losses and liquidations.
Papertrade went live on HyperEVM on Oct. 10, 2026, offering synthetic BTC and ETH perpetuals with leverage as high as 1,000x. At that level, a 0.1% adverse price move can liquidate a position. The featured wallet had prior Hyperliquid activity and completed 305 trades in the first eight hours, reaching about $1.28 million in profit and $1.73 million at peak.
Later, 30 short positions remained open for over three hours before liquidation cost $450,000. Launch metrics included over $137 million in pre-deposits from 11,000-plus addresses, $14.4 billion notional volume, and $3 billion BTC open interest. Net realized trader losses were roughly $18.2–$18.6 million, with wider estimates up to $30 million. PAPER is minted for realized losses, with no pre-mine.
The launch may affect retail and experienced crypto traders by normalizing extreme leverage, where small price moves can erase positions. PAPER stakers could benefit from others' losses, creating incentives that may concern market observers. If payout pools or oracle pricing face stress, confidence in Hyperliquid-linked venues and similar DeFi products could suffer, potentially influencing how everyday users assess risk.