Hyperliquid Get Liquidated King is born! Andrew Tate's 40x leverage turned 720,000 USD into nothing.

In the past year, Andrew Tate deposited $727,000 into Hyperliquid, without withdrawing any funds, and lost all his capital through a series of leveraged liquidations, ultimately dropping to zero on November 18. According to Arkham's on-chain ledger, even the $75,000 referral commission Tate earned by bringing traders to the platform was reinvested into his position and liquidated.

One year of losing everything, how $720,000 evaporated

(Source: Hyperliquid)

This story provides a case study illustrating how high leverage, low win rates, and habitual doubling down can turn six-figure funds into a public spectacle, especially when traders live stream every entry and exit on social media. Tate's Hyperliquid activity lasted nearly a year, with the first recorded forced liquidation occurring on December 19, 2024.

According to Arkham's trading history review, multiple long positions in BTC, ETH, SOL, LINK, HYPE, and PENGU were liquidated on that day. The trends for the next eleven months are already starting to emerge: high leverage on directional bets in cryptocurrencies, minimal risk management, and a preference to re-enter losing trades at higher multiples rather than reducing investments. Once this pattern is established, it becomes a fast track to capital exhaustion.

The most public crash occurred on June 10, when Tate released a message about going long on ETH with 25x leverage around $2515.90, boasting about the scale and confidence of the trade. A few hours later, the position was canceled, and the recruitment information was deleted. The next day, Lookonchain released a dashboard snapshot linking the Hyperliquid tracker address to Tate, showing 76 transactions with a win rate of 35.53% and a total loss of approximately $583,000.

In September, another notable loss occurred when the long position of WLFI was liquidated, resulting in a loss of approximately $67,500. Reports at the time indicated that Tate attempted to re-enter trading at similar price levels, only to incur losses again, a situation that repeatedly occurred in the last few weeks of his account's existence. By November, the holdings of Bitcoin had significantly decreased. On November 14, a 40x leveraged long position in Bitcoin was liquidated, leading to a loss of approximately $235,000. Four days later, the account was completely wiped out.

The final event occurred around 7:15 PM (Eastern Time) on November 18, when Tate's last Bitcoin long Position was liquidated at a price near $90,000. Arkham's investigation report showed that throughout the period, Tate deposited $727,000, did not withdraw any funds, and spent all account balance, including $75,000 in referral income.

35% win rate with 40x leverage deadly math

(Source: Hyperliquid)

The mechanism behind Tate's disastrous defeat is simple: high leverage amplifies both gains and losses, and a win rate below 40% means you lose more trades than you win. Such a low win rate (barely one-third) means that Tate needs to win far more times than he loses to break even. But he did not achieve that. In leveraged perpetual contracts, a 40x leveraged position can trigger a forced liquidation with just a 2.5% fluctuation.

Tate's positions often sit at or above this threshold, meaning that even a slight pullback could force him to be liquidated. When he is forced to liquidate and re-enters at the same or higher leverage, he is effectively resetting the same trade with less capital and the same risk parameters. Over time, this dynamic can deplete funds. The final statistics include positions in BTC, ETH, SOL, and a range of other smaller tokens, all traded with leverage multiples of 10x to 40x.

High leverage and low win rate is a deadly combination

Mathematical Necessity: A 35% win rate means that out of every 3 trades, 2 will result in losses, and the profits from winning trades need to far exceed the losses to break even.

Leverage Amplification Effect: 40x leverage turns a 2.5% price fluctuation into a 100% principal loss.

Compound Loss: Each liquidation reduces the funds, resulting in smaller fluctuations that can be tolerated when re-entering, forming a death spiral.

The $75,000 referral reward complicates matters. Hyperliquid's referral program pays traders a certain percentage of the trading fees generated by their referred users. Tate earned $75,000 through sufficient traffic brought by his self-promotion or fans who registered through his link. He did not withdraw these funds or use them to reduce leverage, but instead reinvested them into the same position that had been liquidated multiple times before. This decision either reflects a belief that the next trade will reverse the trend, or a misunderstanding of how quickly leverage can deplete funds when the win rate is low.

Public trading has turned into a public farce

Tate's practice of publicly trading before the transaction is completed has turned personal trading accounts into public ledgers. Most traders who get liquidated due to leverage do so quietly, as their liquidations may appear in the exchange's aggregate data but are unrelated to personal identities or stories. Tate publishes trading records, marks positions, and occasionally deletes evidence after forced liquidations; this model is bound to attract media reports and on-chain investigations.

Arkham, Lookonchain, and other companies have established trackers to monitor the account, as they know that each liquidation generates clicks and comments. The transparency of the Hyperliquid infrastructure makes tracking transactions effortless. Unlike centralized exchanges, where account information is private, Hyperliquid settles on-chain and makes transaction history public to anyone with an address.

After Lookonchain associated Tate's public persona with a specific Hyperliquid address, the ledger became the focus of public attention. Every additional margin, every re-entry, and every final liquidation are timestamped and archived in real-time. This level of transparency is unimaginable in traditional finance, but has become the norm in the blockchain world.

Hyperliquid platform mechanism and retail investor warning

The broader question raised by the Tate incident is whether the design of high-leverage perpetual trading platforms is aimed at the success of retail investors or to extract funds from overconfident traders. Hyperliquid offers leverage of up to 50 times on certain currency pairs, and will automatically trigger a margin call notification when the net value falls below the maintenance threshold.

For mature traders with strict risk management, these tools can help them develop efficient capital strategies. However, for traders with a low win rate who are accustomed to doubling down, they have become lethal liquidation machines. Tate's loss of $727,000 will not change Hyperliquid's fee structure or leverage limits, but it does provide a public case study illustrating what happens when leverage, low win rates, and reflexive re-entry collide.

The platform charges a trading fee for each transaction, each re-entry, and each forced liquidation. The referral program paid Tate $75,000 to attract trading volume, and then recouped this $75,000 through liquidation. From a business perspective, the system operates exactly as designed. For retail traders following the developments of this matter, the lesson learned is less about Tate's specific mistakes and more about the structural dynamics of leveraged trading.

A win rate of 35% is acceptable under reasonable position management and risk management. However, when combined with 25x leverage and the habit of frequently re-entering losing trades at higher multiples, it can lead to fatal consequences. The transparency of on-chain settlement means that these dynamics can now be seen in real-time, transforming individual events into public education or public entertainment, depending on who is watching. Tate's account balance dropped to zero, Hyperliquid's order book continues to operate, $727,000 has vanished, referral income has also disappeared, and the accounts are public. What remains is a timestamped record that documents how quickly leverage can consume funds when traders refuse to exit trades.