The decentralized exchange Hyperliquid briefly paused deposits and withdrawals on Wednesday, a move that appeared to be a response to a series of potentially malicious trades involving the Popcat token. The platform, a perpetual futures exchange built on the Arbitrum network, saw its services restored within a couple of hours.

The temporary shutdown prompted users on the project’s Discord server to raise concerns about a possible attack. An admin for the server, known as “iliensinc,” addressed the community, stating that the blockchain itself was not under maintenance. Soon after, blockchain researcher Conor Grogan confirmed on X that withdrawals were once again “processing normally.”

Emergency Lock Function Triggered

While Hyperliquid’s official status page did not report any incidents, on-chain data revealed that an “EmergencyLock” function was triggered on Arbitrum. This action suggests the halt was an intentional and controlled response to the trading activity rather than a system-wide failure.

The Popcat token, which drew the scrutiny that led to the platform’s action, has a market capitalization of $136 million, according to data from CoinGecko.