Bloomberg has published an investigation alleging that two accounts on Hyperliquid placed and then cancelled more than $170 million of orders on the platform’s Brent perpetual contracts. The trading took place between March 8 and 10, during a period of acute oil market anxiety around the Strait of Hormuz. The estimated gain from the activity was $119,000, according to the report.
The report relies on data from Solidus Labs, a firm that specialises in crypto market surveillance. The accounts remain unidentified, and the report does not establish intent. Spoofing, the practice of placing orders with no intention of executing them in order to move prices, is illegal in the United States under Section 747 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, and the Market Abuse Regulation covers it in Europe.
What the data shows
On March 9, one account cancelled sell orders worth $17 million. Over the same period, buy orders worth $425,000 were executed on the opposite side of the book. Solidus Labs attributes 90 percent of cancellations on the market to a single trader.
Brent perpetual prices fell from $83.06 to a low of $81.42 within about ten seconds, then reached $87.56 in under one minute. The WTI range that session ran from a high of $119.48 to a low of $81.19.
Regulatory and platform response
Heath Tarbert, chairman of the CFTC, said: “Spoofing is illegal, pure and simple.” As of October 29, no regulatory action had been reported.
Hyperliquid Labs said every order, cancellation and transaction is recorded in a public, immutable ledger viewable by everyone in real time. The HIP-3 framework, launched in October 2025, allows teams to create their own perpetual markets by locking 500,000 HYPE.
Source: Solidus Labs | Data: CFTC
