On November 29, Hyperliquid distributed over 300 million HYPE tokens to eligible community members.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Hyperliquid has achieved one of the largest airdrops in history. During its genesis event on November 29, the protocol distributed 310 million HYPE tokens to its community.
At launch, the HYPE token was priced at $3.90, valuing the total airdrop at $1.2 billion, based on CoinGecko data.
Within about 12 hours, the token’s value surged by 63%, reaching $6.16 at the time of reporting. The market capitalization for HYPE now approaches $2 billion.
Hyperliquid operates on a layer-1 blockchain using a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, with a capacity to process up to 200,000 transactions per second.
The HYPE token is integral to the ecosystem, functioning as both the staking asset for network consensus and the gas token for its Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible layer, HyperEVM.
The protocol revealed that 31% of its 1 billion HYPE tokens supply was distributed during the genesis event.
Of the remaining supply, 38.8% is reserved for future emissions and community rewards, 6% is allocated to the Hyper Foundation treasury, and 0.3% is designated for grants.
Core contributors will receive 23.8% of the total supply, subject to a one-year lockup period, with full vesting concluding by 2028.
Hyperliquid confirmed that no tokens have been allocated to private investors, centralized exchanges, or market makers.
Major Airdrops in DeFi History
Hyperliquid’s airdrop ranks among the largest in DeFi. In September 2020, Uniswap distributed 400 UNI tokens to over 250,000 addresses.
Initially valued at $3.40 per token, the airdrop provided approximately $1,300 per recipient. Many participants sold their tokens early, but UNI’s value surged to over $42 during the DeFi summer of 2021.
In 2023, the Arbitrum protocol conducted another significant airdrop, distributing its native token to over 625,000 eligible wallets. Each token was initially valued at $1.30, bringing the total distribution to around $812,500.
Airdrops are free token distributions by blockchain protocols, aimed at incentivizing early adopters and promoting new cryptocurrencies.
According to CoinGecko, over $26.6 billion worth of tokens has been distributed through airdrops, measured at their all-time high values rather than their initial distribution prices.