The team behind the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange (DEX) on Saturday revealed the unlocking of 1.75 million HYPE tokens, worth over $60.4 million as of this writing, for developers and core contributors.
Saturday’s token unlock was previously announced and is part of HYPE’s vesting schedule, according to pseudonymous Hyperliquid developer iliensinc, who celebrated the first anniversary of Hyperliquid’s historic airdrop and token generation event. he said:
“For reference, approximately 270 million tokens were fully unlocked on November 29, 2024, the largest airdrop in history, measured at approximately $9.5 billion in today’s market value. HyperLiquid has not raised any external capital, so there will be no unlocking by investors.”
sauce: iriensink
This unlocking has raised concerns about potential selling pressure that could impact HYPE’s market price, which has fallen approximately 4.6% at the time of writing.
Hyperliquid’s airdrop and token generation event was seen as a groundbreaking debut for the cryptocurrency industry, which changed product launches by promoting a community-focused model and rewarding early adopters, developers, and users rather than venture capitalists.
Related: Trader burns $3 million to burn $5 million hole in Hyperliquid’s vault
Hyperliquid token unlocks are already built into the price
“Even if Team Pinky vows not to sell, there is nothing binding them,” said market analyst Arthur Hayes, founder of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX.
Hayes added that HYPE token holders should expect a non-zero chance of daily selling pressure, and that the market is already pricing in selling pressure, as reflected in the decline in HYPE since September.
HYPE’s price is down about 42% from its all-time high of around $59.40 in September, and is trading well below its 200-day moving average, an important support level.
The price trend of HYPE showed a steady upward trend, reaching a high in September and then declining. sauce: TradingView
HYPE began its decline on September 19th, but a historic market crash occurred in October, wiping out up to 95% of the value of certain altcoins.
During the market crash on October 10th, the token dropped approximately 54% in one day, but recovered to the $40 level within two days of the crash.
Analysts and crypto industry executives have praised Hyperliquid’s revenue generation and the platform’s ability to process $330 billion in monthly trading volume with a small development team.
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