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$98 HYPE Candle Sparks Debate on Lighter’s Transparency
A sudden surge in HYPE’s price on the decentralized exchange Lighter sparked heated discussion across the crypto community on Monday. Charts circulating on X (formerly Twitter) showed HYPE jumping from around $48 to $98 in a matter of minutes — a 100% spike that left traders puzzled. The dramatic candle quickly went viral, prompting speculation about manipulation or a sudden influx of capital.
Within hours, Lighter’s official account addressed the incident, explaining that a malfunctioning trading bot had triggered the abrupt move.
“A runaway bot jammed through the HYPE book with size,”
the team posted.
According to the platform, the glitch caused no liquidations and no user losses, aside from a temporary distortion in HYPE’s displayed price.
Exchange Removes the “Wick” From Its Public Chart
To prevent future confusion, Lighter removed the exaggerated wick — the sharp vertical line representing the price spike — from its public trading interface. The company clarified that this change was only visual and didn’t alter any on-chain data.
“On-chain data is not (and cannot be) modified and is on the block explorer for those interested,”
Lighter’s team wrote.
“But as we operate the main front end, we make decisions on presenting charts in the way most helpful to traders.”
The exchange emphasized that all transaction records remain permanently viewable through blockchain explorers, maintaining transparency at the protocol level. The frontend adjustment, it said, was purely for usability and visual clarity.
Divided Reactions Across the Crypto Community
While some users praised Lighter’s decision as practical, others accused the platform of violating DeFi’s transparency principles. One commenter wrote:
“Perfectly reasonable to remove the wick from the frontend tbh.”
However, a number of analysts criticized the move as a form of censorship.
Crypto analyst Duo Nine argued that the deletion obscured deeper liquidity problems rather than addressing them directly:
“You should just say your order books are illiquid instead of censoring them to hide it. You’re effectively lying to your users by doing this. If next time users get liquidated, what then?”
Similarly, Hyperliquid Daily, a community analytics page, framed the action as a trust issue:
“Removing the wick from the frontend is seen as ‘erasing history’ or ‘pretending it never happened,’ undermining trust in the platform’s data presentation. Labeling it a ‘runaway bot’ is a cop-out that shifts blame from Lighter’s core problems, like insufficient liquidity.”
Panic and Market Aftermath
Even though no automatic liquidations were triggered, traders reported panic selling during the spike, fearing potential losses if prices continued to behave erratically. Some users exited positions at a loss, while others may have benefited from short-term arbitrage opportunities created by the bot’s malfunction.
By Tuesday morning, HYPE had stabilized around $47.8, with Lighter’s updated charts showing a smooth price trajectory devoid of the dramatic spike.
Still, the event has reignited a broader debate within the decentralized finance space about liquidity depth, user transparency, and chart data integrity.
Whether the episode undermines confidence in Lighter or pushes the platform toward stronger safeguards remains uncertain. Yet for many observers, the $98 HYPE candle will serve as a lasting reminder of how even small technical glitches can rattle trust in decentralized markets.
