WTI Crude Jumps Over 25% as Hormuz Disruption Roils Markets and Triggers Large Hyperliquid Losses

WTI crude oil climbed to an intraday high of $119.5 on March 9 and last traded near $114.5, up more than 25% from last Friday's close and over 40% in a week amid an almost weeklong near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz in Iran that handles about 20% of global oil flows, Foresight News reports. The spike in oil prices coincided with sharp declines in traditional and crypto markets, including a 5.4% drop in Japan's Nikkei 225, a 7% slide in South Korea's KOSPI, a fall of over 3% in Germany's DAX, Bitcoin dipping below $66,000, around $120 million in crypto liquidations in one hour, and the Crypto Fear & Greed Index sinking to 12. On Hyperliquid, Lookonchain reported that trader CBB shorted 127,175 xyz:CL at an average $78.37 (about $13.78 million notional) and now faces roughly $3.81 million in unrealized losses with a liquidation level at $120.76, while address "2 frères 2 fauves" holds 12,717 CL worth about $13.37 million, is down about $3.4 million on paper, and shares the same liquidation price. Another whale, address 0x8Af7, reportedly saw a full liquidation on a 72,179-CL short (about $7.8 million) with losses exceeding $1.55 million before re-entering with 60,166 new short contracts totaling roughly $6.48 million, whereas Sky cofounder Rune Christensen's onchain address RuneKek was disclosed by EmberCN to be long around $7.82 million in crude oil near $93, with unrealized gains above $1.36 million while also shorting part of ETH and XYZ100 as a hedge via onchain perpetuals on Hyperliquid.