Hyperliquid: Founding Team Sells HYPE Over-the-Counter to Avoid Impacting Price

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October 8, 2026Rémy Rencurel

The Largest Unlocking of HYPE Since the Project's Genesis

Hyperliquid Labs completed an unlocking and unstaking operation on October 7, 2026, involving 3.75 million HYPE tokens, with an approximate value of 330 million dollars. The procedure began on September 30, with a 7-day unlocking period mandated by the protocol, an uncompressible deadline.

This lot represents nearly 1.5% of the circulating supply of the token (approximately 254.3 million units according to CoinMarketCap) and corresponds to the monthly unlocking intended for key contributors for October 2026.

By comparison, the two previous monthly distributions were around only 433,000 HYPE, according to data from DefiLlama. This latest unlocking operation is therefore nearly 9 times larger than the previous ones and the largest in the history of the HYPE token.

Hyperliquid Labs Engaged in an OTC Deal to Avoid Market Pressure

Rather than selling these tokens on exchange platforms, Hyperliquid Labs opted for an over-the-counter agreement with an undisclosed institution. The co-founder of Hyperliquid, known by the pseudonym iliensinc, confirmed on the project's Discord that the entire 3.75 million HYPE was covered by this institutional arrangement.

At this stage, and according to transaction tracking from Lookonchain, a total of 1.875 million HYPE has already been distributed among 5 buyer wallets, each receiving exactly 375,000 tokens, which represents half of the total allocation. The CEO of Hyperliquid Strategies, David Schamis, also clarified that his company (with a treasury strategy in HYPE) was not the mystery buyer, who remains unknown at this time.

The advantage of this OTC format is clear, as by not going through the public order books of exchanges, the team avoids immediate selling pressure that could cause the HYPE price to plummet. However, the negotiated price and any potential resale lock-up conditions have not been disclosed.

Some Tokens Already Restaked

Notably, the on-chain activity following the distribution reveals that 1.25 million HYPE, or approximately 110 million dollars, have been restaked after passing through the 5 wallets of the aforementioned mysterious institutional buyer, according to Lookonchain data (see below). A rather reassuring signal suggesting that the institutional buyer intends to hold onto their tokens rather than liquidate them quickly.

HyperLabs unstaked 3.75M $HYPE ($331.4M) 9 hours ago to distribute to the team members and will sell the tokens through OTC.
On-chain data shows that 1.25M $HYPE ($110.57M) has been restaked, 1.875M $HYPE is held in wallet 0x8757, and 625K $HYPE ($55.37M) is held in wallet... pic.twitter.com/8dzPk3TN23
--- Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 8, 2026

Despite the absence of direct sales related to this unlocking on the spot market, the price of HYPE has recently been affected by another factor, namely the general decline in the cryptocurrency market following renewed tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.

The HYPE token is trading around 87.10 dollars at the time of writing, down 2.8% over 24 hours, and is more than 11% below its ATH (all-time high) of nearly 98 dollars, reached on September 23, 2026.

Sources: Crypto Briefing, DefiLlama, Lookonchain

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