Guides and reference · Transfer, not a sale: when whale money moves without a trade
Guide 19 of 211 min read
Transfer, not a sale: when whale money moves without a trade
Why money leaving a wallet is not a sale, and how WhaleRadar tells a transfer from a closed position.
Good for: a post that says a whale dumped or sold when money only moved.
Say a post says a whale sold $20M because that much left its wallet. Money leaving a wallet is a transfer. A sale on Hyperliquid is a trade that shrinks or closes a position, and it shows as fills on the chain.
How to tell them apart
WhaleRadar logs a move when a position changes: opened, added to, cut, closed, flipped or liquidated, each with its fills. Money sent to another wallet changes no position. The receiving wallet may belong to the same owner, which WhaleRadar shows as a pod when their transfers link them.
Where transfers matter
After a hack, funds move from wallet to wallet long before anything is sold. The funds page follows such transfers and says where money only moved and where it was swapped.
What a transfer won’t tell you
It won’t say whether the money will be sold, or who received it.