The team behind decentralized exchange Hyperliquid (DEX) announced on Saturday an unlock of 1.75 million HYPE tokens for its developers and key contributors, valued at over $60.4 million on the time of writing.
According to pseudonymous Hyperliquid developer iliensinc, who celebrated the primary anniversary of Hyperliquid's historic airdrop and token generation event, Saturday's token unlock was already announced and is a component of HYPE's vesting schedule. He said:
“To illustrate, on November 29, 2024, roughly 270 million tokens were fully unlocked in the most important airdrop in history, measured in today's market value of roughly $9.5 billion. There aren’t any unlocks for investors as Hyperliquid has never raised external capital.” Source: iliensinc
The unlock sparked fears of possible selling pressure that would impact HYPE's market price, which is down around 4.6% on the time of writing.
Hyperliquid's airdrop and token generation event was considered a groundbreaking debut within the crypto industry, transforming product launches by touting a community-focused model that rewarded early adopters, developers and users versus enterprise capitalists.
Hyperliquid’s token activations are already priced in
“Even if Team Pinky vows to not sell, there may be nothing stopping them,” said Arthur Hayes, founding father of crypto exchange BitMEX and market analyst.
Hayes added that HYPE token holders should expect a non-zero probability of each day selling pressure, which has already been priced in by the market and is reflected in HYPE's decline since September.
HYPE's price is down around 42% from its all-time high of around $59.40 reached in September and is well below its 200-day moving average, a critical support level.
HYPE began to fall on September nineteenth before the historic market crash in October that worn out as much as 95% of the worth of certain altcoins.
The token fell about 54% in a single day throughout the market crash on October 10, but recovered back to the $40 mark inside two days of the crash.
Analysts and crypto industry executives have praised Hyperliquid for its revenue generation and the platform's ability to handle $330 billion in monthly trading volume with a small development team.
