#HYPEShortSqueeze: From $22 to $63 in One Month. $36.5 Million in Shorts Wiped. One Whale Still Holding. This is what a short squeeze looks like in real time. HYPE dropped from the $58 area down to roughly $22-$24 during a long correction phase running through late 2025 into early 2026. From that low, price recovered more than 130-150% in under a month — and the structure now shows a clean pattern of higher highs and higher lows. NewsBTC The squeeze trigger was a confluence of events hitting simultaneously. On May 18-19, negative funding rates forced shorts to cover, lifting open interest to $1.92 billion and pushing HYPE past $50 for the first time in eight months — up 7% on the day and 30% on the week. Then on May 20: Bitwise's BHYP spot ETF debuted on NYSE Arca with $4.31 million in volume — the largest opening day for a US spot altcoin ETF in 2026 — sending HYPE surging another 5% on a day Bitcoin fell below $77,000. CryptBullBitcoinseats By Thursday, HYPE hit $59.06 — its highest level of 2026 — wiping out $36.5 million in short positions, with weekly gains near 50% and market cap briefly topping $14 billion. On May 22, HYPE hit a new all-time high near $63 before pulling back, with analysts flagging overheated indicators. CoinDeskPhemex And then there's the whale. A trader known as Loracle flipped from long to short around April 20 — a contrarian bet that HYPE would decline. As the token surged, the trade moved violently against him. He injected $36.76 million in fresh collateral to delay liquidation. The position is still open. The squeeze isn't finished. Ainvest Meanwhile, wallets linked to a16z accumulated roughly $418 million in HYPE since mid-April — positioning the firm as the sixth-largest holder. CoinDesk One whale betting against the move. One VC betting on it. $36.5 million already gone. The rest of the position still on the clock. #HYPEShortSqueeze