Allegations Surface Over Coordinated POPCAT Manipulation Linked to BTX Capital

• Alleged coordinated POPCAT manipulation caused major Hyperliquid liquidations.
• Wallets linked to OKX and prior activity placed and removed a $25M buy wall.
• HLP vault absorbed $4.9M in losses as leveraged positions rapidly unwound.

A new round of manipulation claims has emerged in the digital asset derivatives space after an independent investigator alleged that BTX Capital and its founder, Vanessa Cao, orchestrated a coordinated operation to manipulate the price of POPCAT on the Hyperliquid exchange.

The incident, which unfolded on November 12, has drawn attention due to the scale of the orders involved and the financial impact on Hyperliquid’s liquidity infrastructure. Data circulating on social platforms indicates that a large buy wall, later withdrawn, preceded a wave of forced liquidations that swept through the POPCAT market, inflicting multimillion-dollar losses on the Hyperliquidity Provider (HLP) vault.

Multiple Wallets Tied to Order Wall Activity

According to public posts from analyst @SpecterAnalyst, more than 26 wallets were used to place a buy wall of roughly $25 million near the $0.21 level. The orders created an appearance of rising demand before being removed, which contributed to a rapid reversal in market depth.

Wallet histories reviewed by the investigator were traced back to OKX and to addresses connected to earlier alleged TST price activity, with some of the accounts reportedly linked to Cao. The investigator also suggested the attacker could have offset losses on Hyperliquid by holding opposing positions on centralized venues, though no exchange records confirming this have been released.

Lookonchain Data Shows $3M Deployment Followed by Mass Liquidations

Separate on-chain observations from Lookonchain outlined a similar pattern. The platform reported that the attacker withdrew 3 million USDC from OKX the day before the event, distributed the funds across 19 wallets, and opened approximately $26.28 million in leveraged longs on Hyperliquid.

After placing a buy wall of approximately $20 million, the orders were removed, triggering a price drop that liquidated the attacker’s positions and resulted in $4.9 million in losses, which were absorbed by the HLP vault. The attacker’s entire $3 million stake was erased in the process.

HLP Vault Records Steep PNL Decline

A dashboard snapshot from the HLP vault showed a realized loss of $4.88 million and a monthly return of –1%. The chart displayed a sudden drop in value around 01:01, coinciding with the liquidation event.

The vault held over $523.4 million in total value locked but registered no trading volume during the measurement period. Positions reflected heavy unrealized losses in high-leverage trades such as ZORA and RESOLV, with returns exceeding 140% ROE on individual exposures.