Onchain investigator ZachXBT revealed that he has traced a notable whale, who made $20 million through highly leveraged trading on Hyperliquid and GMX, to a British hacker known as William Parker.
In a post dated March 20, ZachXBT indicated that Parker, previously referred to as Alistair Packover before changing his name, was arrested last year for allegedly embezzling around $1 million from two casinos in 2023.
ZachXBT also mentioned that Parker had garnered attention about a decade prior due to allegations of hacking and gambling.
“It is clear that WP/AP has not absorbed any lessons over the years after serving time for fraud and is likely to keep on gambling,” ZachXBT commented.
ZachXBT noted that his analysis was based on a phone number linked to an individual who reportedly received a transfer from the whale trader’s wallet. He also pointed out that public wallet addresses tied to the whale have accumulated funds from previous onchain phishing activities.
It should be noted that this information has not been independently verified.
### Massive Leveraged Bets
The enigmatic whale gained notoriety after racking up approximately $20 million in profits from highly leveraged trades — at times using leverage as high as 50x — on decentralized perpetual exchanges Hyperliquid and GMX.
On March 12, the trader strategically liquidated a long position worth about $200 million in Ether (ETH), resulting in a $4 million loss for Hyperliquid’s liquidity pool, while the whale itself pocketed around $1.8 million in earnings.
Hyperliquid clarified that this liquidation was not the result of an exploit, but rather a predictable byproduct of how their platform functions under such extreme circumstances. They later adjusted their collateral policies for traders with open positions to mitigate similar situations in the future.
On March 14, the whale then took another multi-million dollar long position, this time in Chainlink (LINK).
Perpetual futures, often known as “perps,” are leveraged contracts with no expiration date. Traders typically provide margin collateral — commonly USDC — to secure their open positions.