• Grayscale has launched the first US spot LINK ETF today.
• HYPE rallies after Sonnet shareholders authorize Hyperliquid DAT’s merger.
• ASTER gains more than 13% on a new collaboration with WLFI.

Cryptos rebounded on Tuesday as the value of all tokens increased by more than 6% to $3.06 trillion.

Bitcoin has reclaimed $90,000 as Ethereum trades above $3,000.

This article evaluates three altcoins, Chainlink, HYPE, and ASTER, that remained in the spotlight today for various reasons.

Grayscale’s spot Chainlink ETF goes live

Grayscale has officially converted its Chainlink Trust to an ETF today, introducing the first-ever US exchange-traded fund.

The debut has met considerable anticipation among the cryptocurrency community as many view Chainlink’s oracle infrastructure as crucial to tokenized real-world assets (RWA) and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Commenting on GLINK’s debut, Grayscale’s ETF official Inkoo Kand said:

Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network is setting the market standard for verifiable data and cross-chain connectivity that underpins tokenization and DeFi across public blockchains. With GLINK, investors can gain exposure to this foundational infrastructure in the familiar ETP wrapper.

Meanwhile, GLINK will simplify institutional access to Chainlink, allowing traditional investors to interact with crypto without directly handling the token.

LINK reacted positively to the ETF news, gaining more than 12% to trade at $13.32.

HYPE gains 10% after key milestone

HYPE soared more than 10% over the past 24 hours after Sonnet confirmed a crucial structural breakthrough.

According to today’s, December 2, press release, the company’s shareholders have approved the decision to introduce Hyperliquid Decentralized Autonomous Treasury (DAT).

Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings, Inc. Announces Stockholder Approval of Proposed Business Combination with Hyperliquid Strategies Inchttps://t.co/tzF9O6EgSM $SONN pic.twitter.com/cOT6JSp2ai

— Sonnet Bio (@SonnetBio) December 2, 2025

The plan involves Sonnet merging with Rorschach I LLC to form a unified entity called Hyperliquid Strategies.

Most importantly, the new firm plans to raise $1 billion to buy HYPE.

The massive bet signals unwavering institutional trust in the altcoin.

HYPE is hovering at $33.03 after gaining over 10% within the past 24 hours.

ASTER rallies after WLFI alliance

Aster’s native coin also recorded impressive price actions, gaining over 13% within the last 24 hours.

The upside momentum coincided with a strategic collaboration with Donald Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial.

Aster founder and CEO Leonard announced the alliance at the fintech and crypto conference in Dubai.

Under this agreement, the decentralized exchange will integrate WLFI’s USD1 – a move designed to enrich the stablecoin’s adoption.

The altcoin is trading above the $1 psychological level after gaining over 13% on its daily price chart.

ASTER eyes further rallies, but declining 24-hour trading volumes highlight weakness.

Meanwhile, the broader crypto market remained elevated today, recovering from sharp dips in the past few sessions.

Bitcoin has gained over 7% on its daily price chart, while Ethereum increased by 10%.

Quantitative tightening ending and renewed ETFs interest fuel the current upside momentum.

The post Altcoins today: Grayscale’s LINK ETF debuts; HYPE and ASTER soar up to 13% appeared first on CoinJournal.

• A savvy trader locks in over $2.5M on a Starknet long position opened three days ago.
• He has rotated to HYPE with a 10x long worth roughly $2.98M.
• Hyperliquid’s token could be poised for an upward move.

Smart money participants are celebrating profits despite the current broader bearish sentiments, which underpins Bitcoin around $95,000.

One trader is grabbing attention with his high-stakes leveraged bets.

According to on-chain tracker Lookonchain, the player has secured over $2.5 million in returns after a well-timed long on Starknet (STRK), executed three days ago.

Most interestingly, he has redirected attention to a new position, going long on Hyperliquid’s HYPE with a substantially higher leverage of 10x.

Smart trader 0xbbc0 opened a 5x long on 29.5M $STRK($6.7M) 3 days ago and is now sitting on over $2.5M in profit.

4 hours ago, he also opened a 10x long on 77,598 $HYPE($2.98M).https://t.co/pQAjmsQNjH pic.twitter.com/WQYjrNeJGL

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) November 17, 2025

These back-to-back moves are coming as uncertainty engulfs the financial landscape, with most traders opting for wait-and-watch and caution.

Meanwhile, the latest trade has fueled optimism among HYPE holders, as it indicates confidence in the altcoin’s potential rally in the near term.

An STRK long that hit its target

Blockchain data shows the wallet opened a 5x long on 29.5M Starknet tokens, a position worth roughly $6.7 million, three days ago.

The player entered just as STRK began creating a short-term base.

The digital token has remained on the watchers’ radar lately due to ecosystem upgrades, a thriving staking marketplace, and uncertainty linked to overall market downsides.

900M STRK are now staked on Starknet.

That’s ~20% of the circulating supply, and a 100% increase in staked STRK since last quarter.

Acceleration. pic.twitter.com/3thNY1Hk2x

— Starknet (BTCFi arc) 🥷 (@Starknet) November 14, 2025

While many hesitated as fear crippled the cryptocurrency sector, the smart trader joined before the short-lived rally started, riding a clean uptrend.

His profit surpassed $2.5 million as Starknet extends its recovery, now up 30% the past seven days.

STRK is trading at $0.2104 after losing 8% the past 24 hours amid broader weakness and profit-taking after the latest surge.

HYPE set to rebound after POPCAT scandal?

Hours after the STRK returns emerged in trackers, the trader entered a new position – a long on 77,598 HYPE, worth approximately $3 million, with a significantly higher 10x leverage.

The timing drew attention.

Hyperliquid has been among the most-watched DEXs the past week, following POPCAT’s manipulation, which saw the platform temporarily halt withdrawals.

HYPE endured substantial bearishness following the event, losing more than 10% of its value in the past week.

With the wallet’s transaction becoming some sort of sentiment indicator, enthusiasts trust HYPE is poised for a rebound as the exchange’s manipulation debates settle.

Committing almost $2.98 million to a 10x long underscores the conviction of short-term uptrends amidst broader market struggles.

HYPE remained relatively stable the past 24 hours, losing only 1.40% to trade at $38.41.

Technical indicators display neutral conditions as HYPE eyes the next move.

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence remained relatively flat with the signal line on the 1-hour chart.

Also, the Relative Strength Index at 48 suggests indecisiveness.

For now, market players are watching to see whether the smart whale turns into a reliable signal.

If his history rhymes, HYPE could be poised for a near-term rebound.

The post Smart trader shifts to Hyperliquid’s HYPE after pocketing $2.5M profit on STRK appeared first on CoinJournal.

• An attacker withdrew $3 million in USDC from OKX and split it across 19 wallets.
• They opened $26 million in leveraged long positions on POPCAT perpetuals.
• A $20 million buy wall was placed to falsely signal market strength.

A sharp and deliberately executed sequence of trades has exposed a serious vulnerability in decentralised finance infrastructure.

Hyperliquid, a derivatives platform known for its POPCAT-denominated perpetual futures, recorded a loss of $4.9 million after one entity manipulated internal liquidity to set off a cascade of liquidations.

This was not a conventional exploit for profit, but a calculated test of how much stress an automated liquidity provider can endure before it breaks.

It began with the movement of $3 million in USDC, withdrawn from the OKX crypto exchange. The funds were distributed evenly across 19 new wallets, each routing assets into Hyperliquid.

There, the trader opened over $26 million in leveraged long positions tied to HYPE, the perpetual contract priced in POPCAT.

This aggressive positioning was then reinforced with a synthetic buy wall worth around $20 million, placed near the $0.21 price level.

This wall functioned as a temporary illusion of demand strength. Price responded to the signal, rising as participants interpreted the buy wall as structural support.

However, once the wall vanished, that support disappeared, and liquidity thinned.

With no bids to absorb market movement, highly leveraged positions began liquidating en masse. The protocol’s Hyperliquidity Provider vault, built to absorb such events, took the full impact.

A deliberate architecture stress test with real losses

What separates this incident from typical price manipulation is that the initiator made no profit.

The $3 million in initial capital was entirely consumed in the process. This strongly suggests that the goal was not financial gain but architectural disruption.

By introducing false liquidity signals, removing them at a precise point, and triggering liquidation thresholds, the attacker was able to manipulate the internal logic of the vault system.

The vault, designed to balance risk across positions and supply liquidity in volatile moments, was pulled into a liquidation cascade that it could not fully contain.

This raised questions about how automated liquidity mechanisms handle synthetic volatility events, particularly when faced with malicious but structurally informed participants.

The entire sequence unfolded onchain and was flagged by Lookonchain, which traced the trades back to their source and identified the attack’s distinct phases.

Withdrawal freeze sparks questions about platform stability

Shortly after the vault was impacted, Hyperliquid’s withdrawal bridge was temporarily disabled.

A developer associated with the protocol stated that the platform had been paused using a function called “vote emergency lock.”

This mechanism allows contract administrators to halt certain operations during suspected manipulation events or infrastructure risks.

The withdrawal function was re-enabled within roughly an hour. Hyperliquid did not release any official communication linking the freeze directly to the POPCAT trading event.

However, the timing suggested a precautionary action intended to prevent additional outflows or manipulation during a period of platform instability.

This marked one of the largest losses Hyperliquid has suffered from a single coordinated event, highlighting that even in the absence of external code exploits, internal systems can be compromised through precise liquidity attacks.

Community reaction underscores DeFi volatility

Community responses varied from technical analysis to satire. One observer described it as “the costliest research ever,” while another suggested the entire $3 million burn was “performance art.”

Others focused on what the attack revealed about perpetual futures markets with thin liquidity buffers, noting how easily they can be pushed into self-reinforcing failure.

One user described the event as “peak degen warfare,” referring to the high-risk strategy used to exploit predictable vault reactions.

Despite no direct theft, the outcome was functionally equivalent to a targeted denial-of-liquidity assault.

The attacker had no gain, but the protocol suffered a measurable financial hit, and its architecture showed clear signs of stress under pressure.

This incident has become a case study in how decentralised systems can be stressed from within using only publicly available tools and capital.

In this instance, no vulnerability was found in the codebase. Instead, the vulnerability lay in the assumptions that underpinned market structure and risk containment.

Hyperliquid has not announced any changes to its vault mechanics following the attack.

However, the broader DeFi ecosystem is likely to take note of the strategy and review how vaults absorb or reflect risk under coordinated synthetic pressure.

The post Hyperliquid’s $5m wipeout shows how DeFi vaults can collapse from within appeared first on CoinJournal.