Crypto Investment Firms Initiate $150M HYPE Token Unlock, Triggering Price Decline
Wallets connected to Multicoin Capital initiated unstaking requests for $116 million worth of HYPE as the cryptocurrency dropped 8% to reach $58 on Wednesday, sparking speculation about potential liquidation plans.
Key points:
- Investment funds initiate unstaking of approximately $150M in HYPE tokens, with $116M originating from Multicoin
- HYPE experiences 8% decline to approximately $58; pending withdrawals significantly exceed available spot market liquidity
- Intentions regarding potential sales remain ambiguous — Jain refutes selling plans, while Selini's exit correlates with HIP-3 market closure
The $HYPE token from Hyperliquid descended to approximately $58 during Wednesday trading following the initiation of substantial unstaking activities by prominent cryptocurrency investment funds. Information gathered from the hedge fund analytics platform Block Liquidity reveals that Multicoin Capital maintains a total of $138.78 million in staked HYPE holdings, with approximately 83% of this amount — translating to roughly $116 million — currently awaiting withdrawal processing. Meanwhile, Selini Capital and Galaxy Digital have initiated withdrawal queues for HYPE tokens valued at $4.4 million and $29.4 million respectively. Furthermore, a wallet address associated with Multicoin transferred approximately 167,000 HYPE tokens, valued at $11.2 million, to the Coinbase exchange, potentially signaling an intent to liquidate.
At the time of this writing, the token's value had reclaimed a portion of its earlier losses, most recently changing hands at $59.19 based on CoinGecko's market data. The 24-hour trading volume exceeded $415.4 million.
Withdrawal queue dwarfs daily spot turnover
The aggregate unlocking of these positions will complete processing within a five-to-seven day timeframe and will introduce an approximately $150 million surplus into HYPE's circulating supply. Despite perpetual contracts for these tokens generating roughly $400 million in daily trading activity, the actual spot market for HYPE demonstrates considerably more limited depth. Block Liquidity's transaction flow monitoring system documented merely $72.8 million in HYPE spot market activity throughout approximately 28 hours leading into Wednesday morning, featuring 1,463 distinct purchasing entities versus 982 selling parties. Market maker Wintermute emerged as the predominant net accumulator with purchases exceeding $9 million, whereas the leading net distributor liquidated $5.2 million worth of tokens.
A pending withdrawal volume approaching nearly twice the daily spot trading turnover provides context for the recent market uncertainty. HYPE has experienced approximately 11% depreciation throughout the preceding week. Nevertheless, whether these soon-to-be-unlocked tokens will actually enter the market for sale remains highly uncertain.
The unstaking action taken by Selini capital seems to correlate with the termination of HIP-3 CASH perpetuals markets operated by DreamCash. Similar to numerous recent HIP-3 implementations, DreamCash's USDT-denominated markets faced challenges in securing adequate liquidity, particularly given USDC's increasingly dominant position within the Hyperliquid infrastructure. Initiating a builder-deployed perpetuals market under the HIP-3 framework necessitates staking 500,000 HYPE tokens as a slashable security deposit, which becomes eligible for return upon market discontinuation. There exists a possibility that Selini capital may opt to liquidate this HYPE allocation via an over-the-counter trading desk.
Sale or HIP-3 war chest?
Whereas Selini's recent HYPE token unlock corresponds to the termination of a HIP-3 marketplace, Multicoin's HYPE holdings may be at least partially destined for a fresh deployment. During the previous week, the investment firm announced its inaugural Hyperliquid ecosystem venture investment and spearheaded a $1.75 million seed funding round for Trasia. This emerging platform represents an Asia-centric, non-custodial trading solution that intends to introduce perpetual contracts for Asian equity markets.
Managing partner Tushar Jain stated on X that Trasia aims to attract "net new users" who lack familiarity with Hyperliquid. He asserted in a subsequent X platform post late Wednesday evening that the unstaked HYPE tokens were not earmarked for market liquidation. Market participants will monitor the destination of these funds following the July 28 unlock date. While absorption through new HIP-3 deployments or simple portfolio rebalancing represents the most likely scenario, HYPE has yet to regain its previous peak valuations.
