How a Bot Glitch Sent Hyperliquid’s HYPE Token Soaring to $98

What to know:

• Hyperliquid's HYPE token briefly surged to $98 on Lighter due to a bot error, not whale activity.
• Lighter removed the distorted price data from its front-end to improve user experience, while on-chain data remains accessible.
• The incident highlights challenges for decentralized exchanges in balancing transparency and user experience during market anomalies.

Hyperliquid's HYPE token briefly surged to $98 on rival decentralized exchange Lighter, trading at a steep premium compared to global prices.

The sudden spike drew attention from the crypto community, sparking curiosity about who was driving such heavy buying. However, the surge was ultimately caused by a bot error, not whale activity.

Lighter attributed this unusual price spike to a bot-driven trading glitch. The bot aggressively bought through the HYPE order book, pushing prices higher on relatively low volumes, Lighter said on X, adding that despite the spike, there were no forced liquidations or major disruptions for users.

The extreme price movement distorted the platform’s candlestick charts, prompting Lighter to remove the affected data from its main front-end for a clearer trading experience. As such, the spike is no longer visible on the price chart.

However, all on-chain transaction data remains transparent and accessible on blockchain explorers.

Lighter stressed that while on-chain data is immutable, they control how it’s displayed on their interface to best serve traders. Other front ends built on Lighter’s protocol can choose to show the raw data differently. This episode highlights the difficulties decentralized exchanges face in balancing data presentation, user experience, and transparency during abnormal market events.

Not everyone agrees with Lighter’s approach. Crypto analyst Duo Nine criticized the removal of the data, saying it masks deeper liquidity issues rather than addressing them openly:

“You should simply admit that your order books are illiquid rather than censoring them to hide the issue. By doing this, you’re essentially deceiving your users. What happens the next time users face liquidation?,” Nine said.