Hyperliquid’s HYPE Airdrop Reaches $7.6 Billion in Value
No question that HYPE is now technically the largest airdrop in crypto history, at least in terms of paper value.
Hyperliquid’s new coin could soon also be the most valuable airdropped token to date.
The team behind the popular perps-DEX-slash-layer-1 initially designated 310 million tokens for the airdrop, with more than 94,000 addresses eligible.
So far, about 270.94 million HYPE has been claimed, according to this dashboard, equivalent to ~87% of the total.
At current prices, the HYPE sent out would fetch almost $7.6 billion altogether.
This officially beats Uniswap’s UNI distribution from September 2020, which was previously considered crypto’s biggest airdrop.
At UNI’s peak in May 2021, the paper value of the airdrop surpassed $6.4 billion, more than a billion less than the current value of HYPE’s.
UNI’s airdrop was larger in scope, with tokens sent to over a quarter of a million addresses that had used the DEX.
Almost 94% of those addresses received under 412 tokens, slightly above the minimum allotment of 400 UNI (now worth $6,500).
According to a Dune analysis, over 250 addresses—liquidity whales, $SOCKS holders, and power users—received 250,000 UNI ($4 million at current prices).
Two years later, 93% of recipients had sold all their tokens. At that point, only 2% were still holding, and only 1% had increased their position.
It’s too early to determine whether HYPE’s token generation event will have better retention.
HYPE has increased from $3.81 to $28, resulting in a market cap of $9 billion—only 9% short of UNI—and a fully diluted value of $27 billion.
Unlike the UNI airdrop, nearly 12% of HYPE recipients received between 5,000 and 10,000 tokens, now valued at $140,000 and $280,000, respectively.
4.3% received 10,000 tokens or more, while 57% received up to 100 HYPE ($2,800).
As Hyperliquid’s total value locked (TVL) surpasses $3.2 billion, some airdrop recipients appear to have sold their holdings.
Data shows that 182 of the top 500 addresses from the airdrop no longer hold any tokens, including addresses that received between 1.95 million ($44.6 million) and just under 100,000 HYPE ($2.8 million).
Dozens of others are holding up to 75% fewer tokens; it remains unclear whether they sold or moved tokens to another address or supporting exchange.
Simultaneously, 58 of the top 500 (approximately 11%) have increased their holdings since the airdrop.
Many others—especially those who didn’t receive the airdrop—are likely waiting for a price dip.