On-chain analytics platform Lookonchain tracked a whale that turned a multi-million-dollar loss into a $6.44 million profit in the days leading up to and following the Korean chipmaker’s earnings.
SK Hynix’s stock had been facing a prolonged and substantial downturn as appetite cooled for AI infrastructure companies. However, an impressive earnings result turned things around quickly.
A Rocky Three-Day Trade
Wallet 0xC8b5 opened a 3x leveraged long on 37,229 units of SKHX on July 29. SKHX is a Hyperliquid perpetual contract that tracks SK Hynix’s share price rather than the stock itself. The $37.3 million position briefly showed a $778,000 gain, per Lookonchain.
That gain evaporated fast. A day later, the position’s value fell to $34.28 million. The wallet then faced a $2.26 million unrealized loss, according to a follow-up post. Lookonchain noted the trader had lost more than $1 million on each of the previous three trades. That pattern pointed to another costly bet.
The reversal came just as fast. The position’s value climbed to roughly $43 million. The whale now sits on a $6.44 million profit, fully recovering its earlier losses.
Why the Swing Was So Violent
SK Hynix posted record Q2 operating profit on July 29. Surging demand for its HBM4 memory chips drove the results. Yet the stock initially whipsawed lower. Investors weighed South Korea’s broader market selloff and lingering doubts about AI infrastructure spending.
That reversed on July 31. SK Hynix shares surged as much as 28.59% to ₩1,700,000 on the Korea Exchange. It marked their sharpest single-day move in years.
Strong earnings from Amazon and Microsoft sparked a broader AI-stock rally. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won added momentum with a rare direct share purchase.
The episode follows a separate $57 million liquidation event on the same SKHX market days earlier. That event underscored how thin the margin for error has become. Leveraged bets that track SK Hynix’s earnings swings now carry real risk.