WTI oil futures are now volatile enough to become the provenance of crypto traders. The XYZ:CL contract climbed to the top spot of activity on Hyperliquid.
Crypto traders have not given up on oil, now moving into the WTI oil futures. The HIP-3 contract from Trade.XYZ is now the most active, passing even gold, silver and the main XYZ stock index.
The recent rush to oil recalls previous shifts to new hot meme tokens, as some of the trades were directional bets, without a deeper understanding of the market. The recent oil volatility also caused unexpected sharp liquidations, previously reserved for crypto assets.
WTI oil emerged as a rising growth contract, finally taking the top position on Hyperliquid. The contract displaced the less active Brent addition, which fell outside the top 5 most active assets.
Open interest on the WTI contract broke above $400M, almost catching up with gold and silver, with $500M in open interest.
WTI oil offers extreme price volatility
The past week saw oil move in vastly different directions, creating significant volatility. This was a potential benefit to traders, who could take directional bets.
Hyperliquid whales quickly shifted to the new oil futures, with a mix of long and short positions. During the recent oil rally to $115, some of the positions were liquidated.
Soon after peaking, oil fell back to $77 as the supply crunch had not yet been felt by the markets, and a reserve intervention stalled the rally.
Traders are now repositioning as WTI trades around $85, with a new potential for both price drops or gains. Oil is potentially facing disruptions from the uncertain war situation in Iran, facing both short-term delivery problems and longer-term effects of infrastructure damage.
The potential for direction shifts created the chance for leveraged positions, as Hyperliquid traders left crypto positions during a more stagnant period.
Whales open a mix of long and short positions on WTI oil
A big part of the activity on Hyperliquid hinges on whale positioning. One whale that is currently 3X short on oil is carrying growing unrealized losses of over $809K, as oil resumed its climb.
Three other large-scale traders switched to longs while WTI was still trading below $85. The most successful whale reached unrealized gains of $494K, while two more addresses are near breakeven.
In the coming days, the HIP-3 contract may continue to invite speculative trading, as the war in Iran is trending with almost hourly updates.
Based on the whales’ histories, the oil trading positions were opened by crypto natives. The same addresses also bet on Polymarket, but they mostly dealt with BTC and ETH. The addresses were linked to a history showing crypto-native trading, including predictions on the NFT market.
The inclusion of crypto native whales shows that the infrastructure of Hyperliquid is actively used, despite the slump of tokens. Once liquidity in the form of USDC is present, traders will always seek the potential for directional positions.