Original title: (The largest airdrop of the year? Hyperliquid's average airdrop of $28,500, HYPE's popularity brings a new gold rush)

Original 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, the price of HYPE skyrocketed, rising from an opening price of $2 on November 29 to a maximum of $9.8 on December 1, nearly increasing fivefold in less than three days.

Compared to other major airdrop projects this year, HYPE's market performance is truly impressive. In this airdrop, Hyperliquid distributed a total of 310 million tokens, and even at an opening price of $2, the airdrop scale reached $620 million. It can be considered one of the largest airdrop projects of the year.

Strangely, in the early stages of Hyperliquid's airdrop announcement, there were hardly any Chinese KOLs discussing it on social media, and there were not many Chinese bloggers sharing their experiences afterward. It seems that those focused on getting free tokens collectively missed out on this real opportunity.

Airdrop sent to 94,000 addresses, with airdrop peaking at nearly $10 million

According to ASXN Data, the actual number of tokens airdropped by Hyperliquid is approximately 274 million (some users missed the opportunity due to not signing the Genesis Event terms). A total of 94,000 addresses received airdrops, with an average of 2,915 HYPE received per address, which, calculated at $9.8 on December 1, amounts to about $28,500. From this perspective, Hyperliquid is indeed one of the largest airdrops of the year.

However, the average of 2,915 tokens hides the 80/20 rule, as the average is skewed by large airdrop recipients, with the median airdrop being only 64.53 tokens. In terms of overall proportions, about 38.7% of users received between 10 and 100 tokens, while 17.9% of users received fewer than 10 tokens. Therefore, about 56.6% of users received no more than 100 tokens. Moreover, accounts receiving fewer than 1,000 tokens account for 83.9%. From this perspective, most people did not reach the average level of 2,915 tokens, but even hundreds of dollars can buy an Apple phone with Hyperliquid's airdrop.

For a single address, the highest amount received was 970,000 tokens, which, calculated at $9.8, means this address's airdrop size could reach $9.56 million. It should become the highest valued single address in airdrop projects of 2024 (Starknet's largest single address is $360,000, and Jupiter's largest single address is $130,000).

10,000 new users brought in 2 days after the airdrop

Although there was not much promotion on social media, the luxurious airdrop results still brought a significant number of new users to Hyperliquid. From historical data, before the airdrop was announced, Hyperliquid's daily new users were generally below 500, mostly around 150 new users, while on November 29 and 30, there were 10,993 new users over two days, even surpassing the new user count for the past month. On November 30, the total number of trades exceeded 3.44 million, increasing more than tenfold compared to before the airdrop.

However, the surge in user activity does not seem to have brought about a change in trading volume, with the total trading volume for the two days from November 29 to November 30 being approximately $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion, without a significant increase. However, compared to other projects that saw a sharp drop in user numbers after airdrops, Hyperliquid's performance is indeed somewhat unique.

The growth trend of Hyperliquid has long been established. According to defillama data, Hyperliquid Perp ranks second among all derivative protocols, slightly below Jupiter Perpetual. On November 17, Hyperliquid briefly surpassed Jupiter to become number one. In July of this year, Hyperliquid ranked fourth, behind GMX and DYDX. As a rising star in decentralized derivatives exchanges, Hyperliquid's rise has already begun.

Hyperliquid ecosystem tokens collectively skyrocket

As of December 1, HYPE's market capitalization peaked at over $3.3 billion, ranking around 44th among all tokens, comparable to OKB. The market capitalization of ARB is currently about $4 billion, and if HYPE's price continues to rise, it may directly surpass ARB.

For those who received airdrops, the significant rise of HYPE is undoubtedly the best tonic. Many KOLs on social media indicated that compared to those projects that raised a lot of money but designed complex rules and user games, Hyperliquid is simply a moral example of the year. Some users also expressed that HYPE is currently only a single currency and can only be traded on Hyperliquid.

With the popularity of HYPE, Hyperliquid seems to have become a new gold mine. Besides HYPE, other tokens on Hyperliquid have also rapidly surged with this wave of enthusiasm. From November 29 to December 1, the native trading currencies on Hyperliquid, such as PURR, JEFF, HFUN, etc., experienced significant increases. Especially JEFF (a MEME coin themed around Hyperliquid founder Jeff), which saw a peak increase of nearly 10 times within three days. OMNIX, OMNIX, OMNIX have also seen exponential growth in recent days.

However, how long this strong upward trend can be maintained remains uncertain.

So far, Hyperliquid's on-chain deposits and withdrawals still need to be bridged through Arbitrum. More than 60% of USDC tokens on the Arbitrum chain are held by Hyperliquid addresses. This seems to be a mutually beneficial process, as Hyperliquid brings a sufficient number of active addresses and funds to Arbitrum, while Arbitrum provides stable and inexpensive infrastructure for Hyperliquid before its mainnet goes live.

As of now, Hyperliquid has not accepted any investments. The Hyperliquid Foundation stated in the announcement of the Genesis event that there is no allocation for private investors, centralized exchanges, or market makers in the token distribution. Previously, PANews had conducted in-depth research on Hyperliquid's development philosophy and other related content. (Related reading: With MEME coins worth over a hundred million dollars, 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 has currently launched on the testnet, but integration with other L1 states has not yet been completed. In the short term, it seems that asset transfers using cross-chain bridges like other L1s cannot be done yet. Additionally, as an L1, Hyperliquid's ecosystem is not fully developed, with everything from the browser to the DEX operating under Hyperliquid's own model. This approach seems to have its pros and cons; the advantage is that all technological innovations and development focuses on enhancing the performance of a decentralized derivatives exchange, aimed at creating a decentralized Binance. The downside is that it may be difficult to expand brand influence through ecosystem expansion.

From the perspective of Hyperliquid's official social media management, they hardly publish any content other than announcements. This is a kind of persistent simplicity, but in the crypto field, which is keen on hype and creating momentum, it is indeed quite unique.

However, the recent heat of Hyperliquid once again confirms the principle that any marketing tactics are insignificant in the face of price increases.

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