# Abraxas Capital’s Hyperliquid Short Positions Peaked at $1.57 Billion By Enna Lee Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/36546 Published: 2026-10-21T10:22:03.000Z Updated: 2026-10-21T10:22:03.000Z Section: Investing > Two accounts linked to the firm have traded $9.8 billion across 37 markets and received more than $66 million in funding payments. Abraxas Capital built up to $1.57 billion in notional short positions on Hyperliquid, showing the scale of a strategy the London investment manager uses to hedge crypto holdings and collect funding payments. Two accounts linked to the firm have generated $9.8 billion in cumulative trading volume, logged 5 million fills across 37 markets and received more than $66 million in funding payments. They began trading on Hyperliquid on Feb. 20, 2025. The short positions reached their notional peak on Oct. 6, 2025, including $498 million in Ether (ETH) and $446 million in Bitcoin (BTC) positions. During a period of heavy deployment from August through October 2025, the firm’s positions represented about 10% of Hyperliquid’s total open interest, the value of contracts that remained open. Abraxas uses liquid-staked ETH as collateral on Aave to borrow stablecoins, then routes capital through Binance to Hyperliquid. It takes short positions against crypto holdings to limit exposure to price swings. Funding payments on those shorts provide another source of return. The firm runs the Elysium Global Arbitrage Fund as its flagship fund and has used a market-neutral strategy since 2018. Its position sizes have changed with funding rates. After rates fell following the October 2025 expansion, Abraxas reduced its exposure over the subsequent weeks. In February 2026, its spot holdings of Hyperliquid (HYPE) fell from 1.67 million tokens to nearly zero. Its HYPE short position declined from 1.89 million tokens to 217,000, while the combined value of those positions dropped from $104 million to $25 million. The firm has since expanded its activity again. The two accounts now hold about $365 million on Hyperliquid, including $249 million in USDC, $91 million in spot HYPE, $17 million in staked HYPE and $8 million in other tokens. That USDC balance could contribute to HYPE buybacks if Hyperliquid opens distribution under its AQAv2 yield mechanism. At a 3.14% annual yield and a 90% protocol share, a steady $249 million balance would contribute roughly $7 million a year. The estimate depends on the mechanism opening and the balance and yield remaining at those levels. Hyperliquid’s Assistance Fund already [uses protocol fees to acquire and burn HYPE](). ## Links in this article - [uses protocol fees to acquire and burn HYPE](https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/26924)