Large investors in Hyperliquid are starting to cash out of the exchange’s native token, HYPE, ahead of a substantial vesting schedule that could introduce $11.9 billion in additional supply. Whale wallet 0x316f withdrew $122 million worth of HYPE on Monday, having originally acquired the tokens at around $12 each. The sale nets the investor an unrealized profit of roughly $90 million after nine months of holding, according to Lookonchain data.
The timing of these withdrawals coincides with the HYPE token rallying to a new all-time high of $59.29 on Thursday. Market watchers caution that the token faces a major test in November when core team tokens begin vesting.
Vesting schedule poses supply overhang risk
The Hyper Foundation outlined that 23.8% of the total supply allocated to core contributors will start unlocking on Nov. 29, a year after the project’s genesis event. The schedule will distribute roughly $11.9 billion in HYPE over 24 months. According to Maelstrom, the fund linked to BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, only about 17% of these tokens are expected to be absorbed by buybacks, leaving approximately $410 million in potential supply entering the market each month.
Maelstrom described the looming vesting as a “Sword of Damocles” moment, testing the resilience of HYPE’s market. Notably, Hayes liquidated his HYPE holdings earlier to fund the deposit on a Ferrari Rari 849 Testarossa, highlighting the profit-taking trend among high-profile whales.
Investors pivot to emerging competitors
Some whales are redirecting capital to Aster, a new decentralized perpetuals exchange associated with Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao. Whale address 0x220 purchased $10.5 million in Aster tokens, holding over $6 million in unrealized profit. The Aster token surged more than 1,700% in the past week, becoming the fourth-largest DEX token with a market cap of $2.5 billion, while HYPE fell 7.9% to $49.34 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.