Memecoin POPCAT experienced a significant downturn on Wednesday following a major manipulation event on Hyperliquid (HYPE), one of the leading decentralized exchanges in the cryptocurrency market.
POPCAT Faces 43% Drop Following Manipulative Scheme According to a detailed analysis of the situation by DeFi researcher Hanzo on social media site X (previously Twitter), an unknown trader executed a well-coordinated strategy approximately 13 hours prior to the market disruption.
The trader withdrew $3 million in USDC from the OKX exchange and distributed the funds across 19 different wallets on Hyperliquid. Subsequently, they initiated sizable long positions on POPCAT, accumulating total exposure estimated between $20 million and $30 million.
To create an illusion of demand for the memecoin, the trader placed a massive buy wall at the price point of $0.21, with orders totaling $30 million lined up on the order book. This artificial façade of high buying interest successfully attracted real traders, prompting them to jump on the bandwagon and increase their own buying activity.
However, the situation took a swift turn when the trader removed the buy wall without warning, leading to an instantaneous collapse in the price of POPCAT. This shift resulted in the liquidation of all the long positions taken by traders.
The unknown trader lost their $3 million collateral, while Hyperliquid’s HLP system automatically absorbed the open positions. This action triggered an additional loss of approximately $4.9 million to the HLP, exacerbating a broader market selloff across the token.
Hyperliquid Faces Third Major Disruption This Year In the wake of the incident, the Hyperliquid team took emergency measures to stabilize the market and close any remaining exposures. Shortly after, the platform paused its Arbitrum (ARB) bridge, although it continued processing deposits and withdrawals normally.
The community has expressed skepticism regarding the circumstances surrounding this incident, with many suggesting it may not have been a random liquidation.
Instead, some believe the event could resemble a deliberate stress test or an attack aimed at destabilizing Hyperliquid’s liquidity system. Some contend that the rapid loss of millions in such a short time frame seems too calculated to be merely coincidental.
This incident marks the third major market disruption on Hyperliquid in 2025, raising serious questions about the exchange’s approach to handling liquidity concentration and its systemic risk management practices, as noted by Hanzo in his analysis.
Following the manipulation, the POPCAT memecoin saw a steep decline of approximately 43%, dropping from $0.21 to $0.12, with total liquidations reaching around $63 million.
The decentralized exchange’s native token, HYPE, also declined significantly following the event. According to CoinGecko data, it is currently trading at $38.25, which is a 7% decrease on the weekly timeframe.
The daily chart shows HYPE’s price drop. Source: HYPEUSDT on TradingView.com Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
[PRESS RELEASE – George Town, Cayman Islands, February 17th, 2026]
Zircuit, a security-first digital asset company backed by YZiLabs, Dragonfly, and Pantera, today announced the launch of Zircuit Finance. Incubated by a team from Quantstamp, Zircuit Finance is a secure platform for institutional-grade strategies, a stablecoin vault designed to generate yield on USDC and USDT, with a stated target range of 8–11% APR, subject to market conditions and variability.
Historically, access to professional asset managers and institutional strategies required significant minimum investments and long lockups. Zircuit Finance removes those barriers with a simplified, cross-chain interface that provides access to institutional-grade yield strategies through a single interface, enabling deposits and withdrawals across multiple chains while supporting diversified exposure.
“The future of DeFi isn’t about chasing the highest yields, it’s about building the most secure foundation for capital to grow,” said Dr. Martin Derka, Co-Founder of Zircuit. “Zircuit’s vault is part of a broader shift to create a more stable, transparent, and trusted on-chain economy where users can move large sums of capital efficiently and safely.”
Zircuit Finance vaults allocate a portion of assets to Monarq Asset Management, which manages regulated institutional-grade arbitrage and delta-neutral strategies. Monarq has a proven track record managing the Monarq Digital Asset Opportunities Fund, and the team includes professionals from Tower Research, LedgerPrime, BlockTower, UBS, and Bank of America.
Zircuit Finance also integrates Fidelity’s tokenized money market fund, Aave, and Morpho for diversified exposure across both regulated and decentralized venues.
Complementing this institutional framework, Zircuit Finance is partnering with Forteus, an FCA-regulated asset management division of the Numeus Group, which is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, with offices in London and New York. The partnership develops digital asset investment portfolios focused on generating risk adjusted returns on Ethereum and Bitcoin, leveraging Forteus’ investment strategies and institutional risk management capabilities.
Zircuit Finance will also integrate with FalconX as its prime broker and infrastructure provider, enabling institutional-grade execution, custody, and risk management. FalconX, a digital assets prime brokerage, provides a globally recognized institutional platform trusted by leading hedge funds and asset managers. Its infrastructure supports efficient capital deployment and compliance-aligned operations across multiple venues.
The core features of Zircuit Finance include:
Targeting 8–11% APR on USDC and USDT, with multi-chain deposits and withdrawals. The vault maintains a portion of capital for fast withdrawals (often within 24 hours for smaller requests) while deploying the rest to generate yield. Larger requests may take up to 14 days as capital is being withdrawn from deployed strategies. Cross-chain messaging infrastructure provided by LayerZero technology. This architecture enables secure, omnichain access to vaults and partner strategies across multiple chains, all from a single interface. “As liquidity flows into DeFi at scale, the platforms that will lead are those delivering both performance and safety while bringing institutional-grade strategies accessible on-chain. Our collaboration with Zircuit Finance reflects Monarq’s commitment to powering that next phase of growth, anchored in deep liquidity, disciplined risk, and operational transparency,” said Shiliang Tang, Managing Partner of Monarq Asset Management.
Zircuit Finance is built by cybersecurity veterans who secured more than $200 billion in assets and conducted over 1,100 audits. The team behind Zircuit Finance brings unmatched security expertise to DeFi, with $3 billion in TVL previously staked through the Zircuit Staking program.
Zircuit Finance is now open for deposits. Additional information on depositing USDC and USDT is available at finance.zircuit.com.
ABOUT ZIRCUIT
Zircuit is a security-first digital asset company founded in 2022 by experts from Quantstamp. Zircuit builds secure onchain products designed to help users deploy capital safely and efficiently. Backed by deep cybersecurity expertise, the team has secured over $200 billion in assets and conducted more than 1,100 audits. Zircuit Finance is the company’s institutional-grade platform offering yield on stablecoins and major digital assets.
Users can visit zircuit.com and follow @Zircuit on X.
Disclosure: Zircuit Finance vaults are not bank accounts or insured deposits. Yields are variable and not guaranteed. Participation may be subject to digital asset risk, including smart contract and market volatility. Users should conduct their own due diligence before investing. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Rubio: US and Iran to continue technical consultations at the end of this month
Multiple foreign media outlets reported on the 24th that US Secretary of State Rubio said technical teams from the United States and Iran will hold further talks in Switzerland by the end of June. (Xinhua News Agency)
4 hours ago
Over the past 24 hours, total crypto market liquidations hit $606 million, with more than 130,000 traders liquidated.
According to Coinglass data, the global cryptocurrency market recorded $606 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, including $542 million in long-position liquidations and $68.22 million in short-position liquidations. A total of 135,785 traders worldwide were liquidated in the same period, with the largest single liquidation order occurring on Binance’s BTCUSDT trading pair, valued at $12.0111 million.
4 hours ago
Bitcoin falls below $60,000
According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has fallen below $60,000, with a 4.3% drop in the past 24 hours.
4 hours ago
US Treasury Secretary: AI boom may boost productivity and help curb inflation.
US Treasury Secretary Bessent told CNBC in an interview that he hopes the Federal Reserve will remain "open-minded" about the inflation pattern after the reversal of Iran-related energy price hikes. Bessent noted that the U.S. could enter an economic environment marked by high GDP growth without a corresponding rise in traditional inflation. He cited that in the 1990s, Alan Greenspan foresaw that office modernization and the internet could drive non-inflationary growth, and allowed the economy to keep expanding. Bessent believes the U.S. has a strong chance of seeing a similar scenario again. When asked whether the Fed still needs to worry about potential inflation and whether interest rate cuts are possible this year or next, Bessent declined to comment. However, he argued that it is necessary to stay open-minded about the price or inflation impacts from the Iran conflict, and monitor inflation performance after those effects subside. Bessent also said an open mind is needed, as the AI boom could boost productivity and deliver disinflationary effects, helping inflation return to the Fed’s target level. He added that he believes Kevin Warsh will choose the optimal path that meets both the Fed’s inflation and growth mandates. Bessent also noted that Warsh previously took a hawkish stance on inflation.
4 hours ago
US stocks' intraday storage sector sees broad declines, with Western Digital and Seagate Technology both falling over 4%.
According to Bitget data, during U.S. stock trading hours, the storage sector saw broad declines: Western Digital (WDC) fell 4.47%, Seagate Technology (STX) dropped 4.17%, SanDisk (SNDK) declined 2.31%, and Micron Technology (MU) edged down 0.96%. Most optical communication concept stocks rose, with Corning (GLW) leading the gains at 9.75%, followed by Ciena (CIEN) up 3.24%, Coherent (COHR) rising 2.93%, Lumentum (LITE) gaining 2.61%, and Nokia (NOK) advancing 1.82%. Additionally, Marvell Technology (MRVL) fell 2.59% and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) declined 1.90%.
4 hours ago
During intraday trading in U.S. stocks, crypto-related concept stocks fell broadly, with MSTR dropping more than 7%.
According to Bitget market data, the three major U.S. stock indexes rose broadly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.94%, the S&P 500 increased 0.60%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.63%. Crypto-related stocks fell across the board, with declines as follows: Strategy (MSTR) down 7.33%; Circle (CRCL) down 4.35%; Bitmine (BMNR) down 3.97%; Coinbase (COIN) down 3.73%; Robinhood (HOOD) down 3.70%; Gemini (GEMI) down 3.27%; Bullish (BLSH) down 3.25%; Sharplink (SBET) down 3.19%.
Rubio: US and Iran to continue technical consultations at the end of this month
Multiple foreign media outlets reported on the 24th that US Secretary of State Rubio said technical teams from the United States and Iran will hold further talks in Switzerland by the end of June. (Xinhua News Agency)
4 hours ago
Over the past 24 hours, total crypto market liquidations hit $606 million, with more than 130,000 traders liquidated.
According to Coinglass data, the global cryptocurrency market recorded $606 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, including $542 million in long-position liquidations and $68.22 million in short-position liquidations. A total of 135,785 traders worldwide were liquidated in the same period, with the largest single liquidation order occurring on Binance’s BTCUSDT trading pair, valued at $12.0111 million.
4 hours ago
Bitcoin falls below $60,000
According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has fallen below $60,000, with a 4.3% drop in the past 24 hours.
4 hours ago
US Treasury Secretary: AI boom may boost productivity and help curb inflation.
US Treasury Secretary Bessent told CNBC in an interview that he hopes the Federal Reserve will remain "open-minded" about the inflation pattern after the reversal of Iran-related energy price hikes. Bessent noted that the U.S. could enter an economic environment marked by high GDP growth without a corresponding rise in traditional inflation. He cited that in the 1990s, Alan Greenspan foresaw that office modernization and the internet could drive non-inflationary growth, and allowed the economy to keep expanding. Bessent believes the U.S. has a strong chance of seeing a similar scenario again. When asked whether the Fed still needs to worry about potential inflation and whether interest rate cuts are possible this year or next, Bessent declined to comment. However, he argued that it is necessary to stay open-minded about the price or inflation impacts from the Iran conflict, and monitor inflation performance after those effects subside. Bessent also said an open mind is needed, as the AI boom could boost productivity and deliver disinflationary effects, helping inflation return to the Fed’s target level. He added that he believes Kevin Warsh will choose the optimal path that meets both the Fed’s inflation and growth mandates. Bessent also noted that Warsh previously took a hawkish stance on inflation.
4 hours ago
US stocks' intraday storage sector sees broad declines, with Western Digital and Seagate Technology both falling over 4%.
According to Bitget data, during U.S. stock trading hours, the storage sector saw broad declines: Western Digital (WDC) fell 4.47%, Seagate Technology (STX) dropped 4.17%, SanDisk (SNDK) declined 2.31%, and Micron Technology (MU) edged down 0.96%. Most optical communication concept stocks rose, with Corning (GLW) leading the gains at 9.75%, followed by Ciena (CIEN) up 3.24%, Coherent (COHR) rising 2.93%, Lumentum (LITE) gaining 2.61%, and Nokia (NOK) advancing 1.82%. Additionally, Marvell Technology (MRVL) fell 2.59% and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) declined 1.90%.
4 hours ago
During intraday trading in U.S. stocks, crypto-related concept stocks fell broadly, with MSTR dropping more than 7%.
According to Bitget market data, the three major U.S. stock indexes rose broadly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.94%, the S&P 500 increased 0.60%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.63%. Crypto-related stocks fell across the board, with declines as follows: Strategy (MSTR) down 7.33%; Circle (CRCL) down 4.35%; Bitmine (BMNR) down 3.97%; Coinbase (COIN) down 3.73%; Robinhood (HOOD) down 3.70%; Gemini (GEMI) down 3.27%; Bullish (BLSH) down 3.25%; Sharplink (SBET) down 3.19%.
PANews reported on February 16th that, according to OnchainLens monitoring, a whale deposited $1 million worth of USDC into the HyperLiquid platform and opened a long position in ETH (20x leverage). This whale also currently holds a long position in SOL (20x leverage). This whale also increased its holdings of the following tokens:
20,000 SOL tokens (worth $1.7 million) 8.5 million Fartcoins (worth $1.69 million) 30 million Mon (worth $717,000) 6.73 million XPL tokens (worth $651,000) The whale has suffered a total loss of over $11.877 million.
Onchain analysts flagged an alleged coordinated Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) manipulation attempt on Hyperliquid, resulting in $1.5 million in losses for the protocol’s liquidity vault.
Blockchain security firm PeckShield and onchain tracker Lookonchain identified the incident on April 9, linking four wallets to a single entity.
How the Alleged Fartcoin Manipulation UnfoldedAccording to PeckShield, the attacker accumulated a $15 million Fartcoin long position totaling 145.24 million tokens across four wallets.
The attacker then triggered what PeckShield described as a “suicide” liquidation in a low-liquidity environment. This forced Hyperliquid’s Auto-Deleveraging (ADL) mechanism to activate, pushing the toxic position onto the Hyperliquidity Provider (HLP) vault.
Lookonchain confirmed that the wallets suffered a combined $3.02 million in liquidation losses.
“A $3M loss on paper, but likely a massive net profit via cross-venue hedging,” the post added.
Meanwhile, two short-side traders with addresses beginning 0x06ce and 0x4196 were auto-deleveraged by the ADL system, realizing approximately $849,000 in combined profits.
“4 fresh wallets, same entity, all traced $USDC at the same time coordinated long-liquidated in under 3 hours after a 27% pump collapsed into a 30% crash. This is what whale-vs-whale manipulation looks like when both sides are playing the same game, and one of them blinks first,” Evening Trader Group wrote.
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The wallet 0x06ce appears to be one of the few addresses that exited in profit with a PNL of +$512k during the recent $FARTCOIN HLP incident.
Following a coordinated attempt where traders built an 8-figure notional long and were later intentionally liquidated, HLP was left… https://t.co/OVmBywSmPo
— Hyperdash (@hypurrdash) April 9, 2026 The fallout comes as Fartcoin’s price sees notable volatility. The meme coin surged to an intraday high of $0.25 yesterday, marking its highest level since late January.
FARTCOIN Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto MarketsHowever, over the past 24 hours, the token dropped more than 13%, ranking as the top loser among the 300 largest cryptocurrencies on CoinGecko. The token was trading near $0.17 at the time of writing.
PANews reported on March 9th that, according to CoinDesk, global insurance brokerage giant Aon, in collaboration with Coinbase and Paxos, has completed a proof-of-concept test of stablecoin premium payments, using USDC (Ethereum) and PayPal USD (PYUSD, Solana) to settle insurance premiums. Aon stated that this is the first time a major global insurance brokerage has used stablecoins in premium settlement. Currently, cross-border premium settlements largely rely on bank clearing, which takes several days. This test aims to evaluate the potential advantages of on-chain payments in terms of settlement efficiency, cost, and transparency, and to prepare for the future introduction of stablecoins into the existing financial system, against the backdrop of the US passing the Genius Act, which establishes a federal regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers.
Crypto advances quietly, but it now leaves thick traces on the market table. In this large digital chessboard, stablecoins move their pawns with the coldness of a server room. They do not have the flair of bitcoin, nor the grimaces of memecoins. Yet, they already hold a good part of the liquidity, like a discreet queen behind louder pieces.
In brief The stablecoin market exceeds 323 billion after more than 1.5 billion weekly massive global inflows. Tether still locks the crypto ecosystem with nearly 59% current global stablecoin dominance. BlackRock, PayPal and Western Union quietly accelerate their strategic offensive in tokenized digital financial infrastructures. MiCA strongly boosts euro stablecoins, despite the persistent hegemony of the global digital US dollar. Stablecoins lock the chessboard with USDT as heavy king The stablecoin market climbs to 323.3 billion dollars, after 2 billion dollars of inflows in seven days. The push confirms a massive return to tokenized dollars, without much speculative fireworks.
Tether holds the lead with 189.7 billion dollars and 58.67% dominance. In other words, USDT remains the king at the center of the board, while its rivals are still searching for the perfect opening.
USDC shows a bumpier trajectory according to recent reports. A week earlier, it attracted 1.61 billion dollars and climbed to 78.96 billion. Then it gave up more than 950 million to fall back near 77.06 billion.
This fluctuation illustrates a stablecoin market that has become tactical, almost surgical. Crypto investors no longer just store cash on-chain. They move their reserves, test yields, arbitrate risks, and choose sides according to market depth.
Crypto sees BlackRock, PayPal and Western Union advancing their knights Behind Tether, several challengers advance without asking for permission. Sky’s USDS leaps 11.5% over the week and reaches 8.79 billion dollars. The 10 billion threshold is not far off.
DAI, its elder, remains fourth with 4.61 billion, despite slight erosion. World Liberty Financial’s USD1 also climbs 1.97%, with about 87 million additional inflows.
Then the game becomes more tense. Ethena’s USDe recovers 6.77%, after a period marked by painful withdrawals. PayPal’s PYUSD advances 1.32%, while BlackRock’s BUIDL gains 8.01%. USDG progresses by 9.63%, confirming appetite for new crypto products backed by the dollar.
The case of Western Union USDPT resembles a spectacular queen’s gambit: +597,568% in seven days. Yet its capitalization only reaches 1.5 million dollars. The figure shocks, but the piece remains tiny.
Old finance tests the terrain, without toppling the chessboard.
MiCA pushes the euro, but the dollar still holds the queen Europe also tries to move its pieces with MiCA. Euro stablecoins have more than doubled after the deployment of the European regulatory framework. Their capitalization was around 500 million dollars in May 2025, then 680 million according to Decta.
Token Terminal even reports an on-chain record of 774.2 million as of May 13, 2026. Ethereum concentrates 66.2% of this supply, confirming its role as dominant infrastructure.
Yet, the gap with the dollar remains violent. Euro stablecoins remain tiny compared to the hundreds of billions controlled by USDT and USDC. On the other hand, volumes grow fast. Decta talks about monthly transactions multiplied almost by nine, to 3.83 billion dollars.
EURC and EURCV particularly benefit from this clearer regulation. In the same setting, tokenized assets rise to 26.7 billion, supported by tokenized treasuries at 16.2 billion. The market prepares a programmable finance, with reserves, yield and compliance on the same square.
Squares to watch on the board Global stablecoin market: over 323 billion dollars currently; USDT dominates with nearly 190 billion in capitalization; USDS quickly approaches the strategic 10 billion threshold; Euro stablecoins: on-chain record exceeding 774 million; Tokenized treasuries: 16.2 billion, or 60.4% of the sector. Christine Lagarde nevertheless refuses to treat stablecoins as a simple nice innovation. The ECB president mainly fears a too powerful private digital dollar. Her antidote remains the digital euro, designed as a public dam against the tide of dollarized tokens.
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Mikaia A.
La révolution blockchain et crypto est en marche ! Et le jour où les impacts se feront ressentir sur l’économie la plus vulnérable de ce Monde, contre toute espérance, je dirai que j’y étais pour quelque chose
DISCLAIMER
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.
