The US PCE Beforehand Whale Shorts $13.5M Ahead of Release, Betting on Higher-than-Expected Inflation to Suppress Nasdaq

March 13 — Per HyperInsight monitoring (https://t.me/HyperInsight), 6 whales (holding over $1 million in assets) on Hyperliquid (https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/join/NTOD) pre-positioned in XYZ100 (Nasdaq 100 perpetual contracts) ahead of the U.S. January PCE Price Index release. The largest position is held by a wallet address starting with 0x9e8. Currently, this address holds a 20x-leveraged short position in XYZ100 with a size of $13.56 million, an average entry price of $24,723, and an unrealized profit of $127,000 (18%). This marks the first time the address has significantly expanded its holdings of on-chain U.S. stock contracts; previously, its activity centered on long positions in BTC and ETH. It also holds a $3.7 million long position in CL (WTI crude oil). In related news, the U.S. is set to publish the January PCE Price Index. Market consensus forecasts PCE to rise 2.9% year-over-year, with core PCE seen growing 3.1% year-over-year. If core PCE year-over-year growth reaches or exceeds 3.2%, it will sharply dampen market expectations of interest rate cuts later this year, pressuring risk assets such as the Nasdaq.