Author: Frank, PANews
After much anticipation, on November 29, the decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid announced the genesis event for its native token HYPE. After the token went live, HYPE's price soared, rising from an opening price of $2 on November 29 to a peak of $9.8 on December 1, nearly a fivefold increase in less than three days.
Compared to other major airdrop projects this year, HYPE's market performance has indeed been impressive. In this airdrop, Hyperliquid distributed a total of 310 million tokens, which, even at an opening price of $2, amounts to a scale of $620 million. It can definitely be considered one of the largest airdrop projects of the year.
Strangely, in the early days before Hyperliquid announced the airdrop, there were few Chinese KOLs discussing it on social media, and there were not many Chinese bloggers who shared their experiences afterward. It seems that those focused on quick gains collectively missed this real opportunity.
The airdrop was sent to 94,000 addresses, with the highest airdrop nearing $10 million.
According to data from ASXN Data, the actual number of tokens airdropped by Hyperliquid is approximately 274 million tokens (some users missed the opportunity to claim due to not signing the Genesis Event terms). A total of 94,000 addresses received the airdrop, with an average of 2,915 HYPE tokens per address, which amounts to about $28,500 based on the price of $9.8 on December 1. From this perspective, Hyperliquid is indeed one of the largest airdrops of the year.
However, behind the average of 2,915 tokens is the Pareto principle, where the average is skewed higher by large airdrop recipients, with the median amount being only 64.53 tokens. Overall, about 38.7% of users received between 10 to 100 tokens, and 17.9% of users received less than 10 tokens. Therefore, about 56.6% of users received no more than 100 tokens. Additionally, accounts receiving less than 1,000 tokens account for 83.9%. This suggests that most people did not reach the average level of 2,915 tokens, although even a few hundred dollars could buy an Apple phone with Hyperliquid's airdrop.
For a single address, the highest amount claimed by a single address was 970,000 tokens, which amounts to $9.56 million based on the price of $9.8. This should become the highest claiming value for a single address among airdrop projects in 2024 (the largest single address on Starknet was $360,000, and the largest single address on Jupiter was $130,000).
The airdrop brought 10,000 new users in two days.
Although there was not much promotion on social media, the outcome of the luxurious airdrop still brought a significant number of new users to Hyperliquid. Historically, before the airdrop announcement, Hyperliquid's daily new users were generally below 500, often around 150 new users. However, on November 29 and 30, the two days saw a total of 10,993 new users, surpassing the number of new users in the past month. On November 30, the total number of trades even exceeded 3.44 million, increasing by over tenfold compared to before the airdrop.
However, the surge in user activity does not seem to have significantly changed trading volume, with total trading volumes of approximately $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion over the two days from November 29 to November 30, showing no notable growth. However, compared to other projects where user numbers plummeted after airdrops, Hyperliquid's performance is indeed quite unique.
The growth trend of Hyperliquid has long been established. According to data from defillama, Hyperliquid Perp ranks second among all derivatives protocols, slightly below Jupiter Perpetual. On November 17, Hyperliquid briefly led Jupiter to become first. In July of this year, Hyperliquid was ranked fourth, after GMX and DYDX. As a rising star in decentralized derivatives exchanges, Hyperliquid's rise has already begun.
Hyperliquid's ecological tokens have collectively surged.
As of December 1, HYPE's market value has exceeded $3.3 billion at its peak, ranking approximately 44th among all tokens, comparable to OKB. The current market value of ARB is about $4 billion, and if HYPE's price continues to rise, it may directly surpass ARB.
For those who received the airdrop, the significant rise in HYPE is undoubtedly the best booster. On social media, many KOLs have expressed that compared to those who raised a lot of money but designed complex rules and user gaming, Hyperliquid is simply a yearly conscience. Some users also indicated that HYPE is currently just a standalone token that can only be traded on Hyperliquid.
With the popularity of HYPE, Hyperliquid seems to have become a new gold mine. Apart from HYPE, other tokens on Hyperliquid also experienced a rapid rise during this wave. From November 29 to December 1, native trading tokens on Hyperliquid such as PURR, JEFF, HFUN, etc., saw significant increases. In particular, JEFF (a MEME coin themed around Hyperliquid founder Jeff) rose nearly tenfold within three days. OMNIX has also seen exponential growth in recent days.
However, how long this strong upward trend can be maintained remains an unknown.
So far, Hyperliquid's on-chain deposits and withdrawals still need to be bridged through Arbitrum. Over 60% of the USDC tokens on the Arbitrum chain are held by Hyperliquid addresses. This seems to be a mutually beneficial process, where Hyperliquid brings ample active addresses and funds to Arbitrum, while Arbitrum provides Hyperliquid with stable and inexpensive infrastructure before its mainnet launch.
As of now, Hyperliquid has not accepted any investments. The Hyperliquid Foundation stated in the announcement of the genesis event regarding token distribution: 'There is no allocation for private investors, centralized exchanges, or market makers.' Previously, PANews conducted an in-depth study on Hyperliquid's development philosophy and other related topics. (Related reading: With a market value of over $100 million, will the L1 public chain Hyperliquid, which focuses on derivatives trading, become a new MEME gold mine?)
According to Hyperliquid's official information, Hyperliquid EVM is currently online on the testnet, but integration with other L1 states has not yet been completed. In the short term, it seems that asset transfers via cross-chain bridges like other L1s are not yet possible. Additionally, as an L1, Hyperliquid's ecosystem is not yet complete, with everything from the browser to DEX being operated in-house. This approach has its pros and cons; the advantage is that all technical innovations and development focuses on enhancing the performance of the decentralized derivatives exchange, aiming to create a decentralized Binance. The downside is that it may be challenging to expand the brand influence through ecosystem expansion.
From the perspective of Hyperliquid's official social media management, aside from announcements, very little other content is posted. This is a kind of persistent simplicity, but in the crypto field, which is keen on hype and momentum, it is indeed quite unique.
However, Hyperliquid's recent popularity once again confirms the principle that any marketing tricks are insignificant in the face of price increases.
