November extended the pullback that began in early October. For most of the month, $BTC and major assets continued to drift lower, with sellers keeping control and any early attempts at recovery failing to stick. $BTC’s drawdown eventually reached almost 30%, which is still in line with what we have seen many times in past bull cycles.
Toward the end of the month, the market finally showed signs of life. $BTC attempted a late month push off the lows, reclaiming some short-term momentum, though it remained below key resistance levels and still within the broader downtrend.
$ETH lagged throughout the month, while a few niche sectors held up better relative to the majors. Notably, $ZEC experienced a sharp reversal after its parabolic October rally, declining over 60% through November as profit-taking intensified and the privacy narrative cooled off.
This month Mirrorly’s top 3 traders are:
🏆Trader 0x469 (Hyperliquid): +$4.6M
🥈Trader 0x2d9 (Hyperliquid): +$2.9M
🥉Trader 0x9e8 (Hyperliquid): +$1.9M
0x469 was the most active of the three, closing 79 positions over the month with an 81% win rate and a profit factor of 2.4. A notable pattern is the gap in holding periods: average winners were held for about 1.5 days, while average losers were held for around 6 days. This suggests a tendency to let losing positions run longer rather than cutting them quickly. This interpretation is consistent with the average win/average loss ratio of 0.56, meaning the average winning trade was roughly half the size of the average losing trade, which helps explain the high win rate.
0x2d9 recorded the highest win rate at 93%, closing 14 positions with only one loss. The average holding period across these trades was just over 4 days.
0x9e8 closed 12 positions with a 50% win rate but achieved an exceptionally high profit factor of 40. Unlike 0x469, his average winning trade was held for nearly 3 days, while his average losing trade lasted only about 3 hours. This aligns with his average win/average loss ratio of 40.4 and his average profit-to-drawdown ratio of 6.5. The latter indicates that, on average, his profits were 6.5 times larger than the typical drawdown experienced while the positions were open.
Trader Spotlight: 0x469#
0x469 was most active during the first half of the month, running both long and short exposures with notional ranging from roughly –$50M to over +$25M, while maintaining net exposure between –$30M and +$30M.
For the first 10 days of November, his PnL fluctuated between breakeven and about +$1M. The bulk of his profits came later in the month, as reflected in the PnL curve, which also shows minimal drawdowns throughout the period.
0x469 traded a broad set of symbols, consistent with his long/short approach, with most of his activity concentrated in large-cap assets such as $BTC, $ETH, $HYPE, and $SOL.
Looking at PnL by symbol, the top three contributors were $BTC (+$3.5M), $ETH (+$1.6M), and $XRP (+$610K), totaling $5.7M in profits. This is 3.6 times larger than the combined losses of the three worst-performing symbols, which amounted to $1.6M.
Typically, the traders featured in this report exhibit a strongly positive skew in their PnL distribution, especially at the highest percentiles, where a few outsized winners dominate their results. This is not the case for 0x469. His PnL distribution is far more symmetric at the top end: for example, the ratio between the 99th percentile and the 1st percentile is only 1.36, indicating that his largest winners are not dramatically larger than his largest losses.
However, the distribution becomes much more positively skewed at the mid-range percentiles. The ratio between the 75th and 25th percentiles is 22, showing that the middle 50% of his trades contains a significant number of strong winners relative to the weaker side. In other words, while his extreme outcomes are relatively balanced, roughly half of his positions exhibit a clear positive skew, driven by a cluster of mid-sized but consistently profitable trades.
Trader Spotlight: 0x2d9#
0x2d9 followed a long/short approach during the first half of the month, which is when he generated the majority of his performance, reaching more than $2M in realized gains. During this phase, his net exposure fluctuated between –$10M and +$10M. In the second half of the month, he shifted fully to the long side and significantly increased his exposure to roughly +$30M. This directional shift added another $1M in profits, bringing his total monthly PnL to nearly $3M.
He closed positions across only six symbols, mostly large caps such as $BTC, $ETH, $SOL, and $LTC, as well as the perp DEX token $ASTER and the privacy-focused $ZEC.
The privacy trade was his main performer: $ZEC contributed $1.4M, accounting for about half of his total monthly PnL. Notably, 0x2d9 was profitable on every symbol he traded.
While the number of closed positions is relatively small, his PnL distribution shows a strong positive skew. Approximately 80% of his total profits came from 98% of his positions (around +$2.3M), while the remaining 20%, roughly +$600K, came from the final 2% of trades. This indicates that nearly all of his positions contributed positively, with a handful of outsized winners.
Trader Spotlight: 0x9e8#
Trader 0x9e8 followed a short/long approach with a notional exposure ranging between +$5M and -$5M at the start of the month but then converted to mainly short positions keeping his net exposure mainly on the short side from November 12 until the end of the month. His PnL trajectory shows a buildup through the first three weeks, reaching approximately +$1M, before a sharp acceleration in the final week that drove his total to +$1.9M. The late month increase on the PnL mainly attributed to his shorts positions as the privacy market narrative began cooling off.
0x9e8 operated with a highly focused symbol selection, dominated by privacy plays, particularly $ZEC, alongside some exposure to $FIL and selective positions in $BTC.
Looking at PnL by symbol, $ZEC was the main contributor representing 100% of his monthly profits.
0x9e8’s PnL distribution shows the strong positive skew typical of the best traders usually featured in this report. There is a clear asymmetry between his largest winning and losing trades: his top winner far exceeded every negative PnL outcome during the month. This pattern reflects his ability to capture substantial upside while keeping downside risk tightly contained.
Case Study - Trading the Privacy Narrative Reversal#
Over the past few months, the privacy narrative has developed into one of the strongest sector rotations in crypto. Traditional privacy coins have significantly outperformed major assets, with Zcash emerging as the leading beneficiary in both narrative momentum and price appreciation. $ZEC has significantly outperformed $BTC between October and the first week of November rallying by nearly 800%, while other privacy names such as Monero ($XMR) and Dash ($DASH) have also gained from the renewed focus on financial anonymity.
Following the strong rally in October, both 0x2d9 and 0x9e8 positioned themselves for a momentum slowdown in November by shorting $ZEC after its extreme move. Their timing proved accurate, and this contrarian trade became their most profitable play of the month. 0x2d9 generated $1.4M from this setup, while 0x9e8 realized roughly $2M, primarily from short exposure to $ZEC.
The image below highlights the timing of the two most profitable $ZEC short trades executed by each trader. 0x2d9 entered his short position on November 6 and, as price moved against him, increased size to bring his average entry to $595.9, reaching a maximum notional exposure of $7.7M. When $ZEC eventually retraced more than 30% from its peak, he closed the position for an ~8% return, realizing approximately $607K in profits. While 0x2d9’s most profitable $ZEC short was held for only two days, 0x9e8’s position was held for 13 days. He built the trade gradually between November 16 and 23, reaching a maximum notional exposure of $5.2M, and then began taking profit as $ZEC fell from its ~$720 peak toward the $480 area. He ultimately closed the position with a 24% ROI, generating approximately $1.2M in profits.
Focusing on 0x9e8’s trade, the most interesting aspect is the way he built the position over time. He began accumulating between November 16 and 17 as price approached the previous ATH zone around $700, reaching a notional exposure of roughly $2M. In the following days, price pulled back nearly 20%, but he did not take profit, likely positioning for a larger downside move.
When price later reclaimed the $700 area from below, he continued adding to the short, ultimately scaling up to a $5.2M notional. Once $ZEC began to sell off again, he gradually reduced exposure on the way down, exiting just below the $500 level.
This slow, staged build-up is a pattern shared by many of the top traders covered in past reports. It provides flexibility, allows for more controlled risk management, and reduces the chance of being caught offside if price moves against the trade plan.
Conclusion#
November extended the corrective phase that started in early October, but even within a difficult market, our top traders continued to demonstrate strong execution and clear behavioral edges. Whether through disciplined long-short rotations, focused sector plays like the privacy narrative, or precise timing around momentum reversals.
Looking ahead, December will give us another chance to observe how top traders adjust their positioning and risk in changing market environments. We will keep tracking emerging traders and share the most relevant insights in the next edition.
Follow our highlight traders on Twitter:
- 0x469: please if you know, let us know his twitter handle
- 0x2d9: please if you know, let us know his twitter handle
- 0x9e8: please if you know, let us know his twitter handle
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