Which DEX paused withdrawals this week?

TLDR

Hyperliquid temporarily paused some withdrawals this week after abnormal POPCAT trading activity, then restored service within hours, according to multiple reports. See the pause note in a market report.

1. The pause was on its Arbitrum bridge, framed as maintenance, and later resumed, per a news update.
2. Coverage ties it to a traders POPCAT positions and HLP vault losses, not a contract hack, per a media recap.
3. The incident was short-lived and localized to that bridge path, per a follow-up.

Deep Dive

1. Hyperliquid Pause

Hyperliquid temporarily paused deposits and withdrawals on 12 Nov tied to activity around POPCAT. Reports show the pause and subsequent resumption within hours. The action was acknowledged as a brief operational pause in response to market conditions rather than a full platform outage, as covered in a market report and a news update.

2. Arbitrum Bridge Scope

The affected scope was specifically USDC deposits and withdrawals via the Arbitrum bridge. Community screenshots and Discord commentary indicated paused for maintenance, with other routes reportedly unaffected and processing resuming later, per a news update.

3. Driver and Impact

Coverage links the pause to a traders large POPCAT long positions across multiple wallets that led to rapid liquidations and losses absorbed by Hyperliquids HLP vault. Media emphasized there was no confirmed protocol hack, framing it as market manipulation risk on thin-liquidity assets, per a market report.

Conclusion

The decentralized perps exchange Hyperliquid briefly paused Arbitrum-bridge withdrawals this week in response to a POPCAT-driven market event, then restored normal processing. Reports characterize the episode as a targeted, short-duration safeguard tied to position liquidations rather than a systemic exploit.