Written by: Frank, PANews
After much anticipation, it finally arrived. On November 29, the decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid announced the genesis event of its native token HYPE. After the token went live, the price of HYPE soared, starting from an opening price of $2 on November 29, reaching a peak of $9.8 on December 1, increasing nearly 5 times in less than 3 days.
Compared to other major airdrop projects this year, HYPE's market performance has indeed been stunning. In this airdrop, Hyperliquid distributed a total of 310 million tokens, and even at an opening price of $2, the scale of the airdrop reached $620 million. It is undoubtedly one of the largest airdrop projects this year.
However, it is strange that 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 KOLs focused on quick profits collectively missed this real opportunity.
Airdrops were sent to 94,000 addresses, with the highest airdrop nearing $10 million
According to ASXN Data, Hyperliquid's actual airdrop amount is about 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 per address, which, based on the December 1 price of $9.8, amounts to about $28,500. From this perspective, Hyperliquid is indeed one of the largest airdrops this year.
But behind the average of 2,915 tokens lies the 80/20 rule, as the average is inflated by large airdrop recipients; the median airdrop amount is only 64.53 tokens. In terms of overall proportions, about 38.7% of users received between 10 and 100 tokens, while 17.9% received 10 tokens or fewer. Therefore, about 56.6% of users received no more than 100 tokens. Additionally, accounts that received fewer than 1,000 tokens account for 83.9%. Therefore, most people did not reach the average level of 2,915 tokens, but even at several hundred dollars, Hyperliquid's airdrop could still be exchanged for an Apple phone.
On a single address, the highest amount claimed by a single address was 970,000 tokens. Based on the price of $9.8, the airdrop scale for this address could reach $9.56 million. This should become the highest value claim in the 2024 airdrop projects (the largest single address for Starknet is $360,000, and for Jupiter, it is $130,000).
Airdrop brought 10,000 new users in 2 days
Although there isn't much promotion on social media, the luxurious airdrop results have indeed brought Hyperliquid quite a few new users. From historical data, before the airdrop was announced, Hyperliquid's daily new users were generally below 500, mostly around 150 new users. However, on November 29 and 30, the two days saw 10,993 new users, even exceeding the number of new users in the past month. On November 30, the total number of transactions exceeded 3.44 million, growing more than 10 times compared to before the airdrop.
However, the surge in user activity seems to not have brought any change in trading volume. The total trading volume for the two days from November 29 to November 30 was about $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion, showing no significant increase. However, compared to other projects where user numbers plummet drastically 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 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, following GMX and DYDX. As a rising star among decentralized derivatives exchanges, Hyperliquid's rise has already begun.
Hyperliquid's ecosystem tokens collectively surged
As of December 1, HYPE's market capitalization exceeded $3.3 billion at its peak, ranking about 44th among all tokens, comparable to OKB. ARB's market capitalization is currently 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 of HYPE is undoubtedly the best booster. On social media, many KOLs expressed that Hyperliquid, compared to those that raised a lot of money but designed complex rules and user games, is simply a yearly conscience. Some users also mentioned that HYPE is currently just a standalone coin 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 also rapidly surged with this wave. From November 29 to December 1, the native trading tokens on Hyperliquid like PURR, JEFF, HFUN, etc., experienced significant increases. Especially JEFF (a MEME coin based on Hyperliquid founder Jeff), which surged nearly 10 times within three days. OMNIX also saw exponential growth in recent days.
Only time will tell how long this strong upward trend can be maintained.
As of now, 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 sufficient active addresses and active funds to Arbitrum, while Arbitrum provides Hyperliquid with a stable and low-cost infrastructure before going live on the mainnet.
As of now, Hyperliquid has not accepted any investments. The Hyperliquid Foundation stated in the announcement of the genesis event that in the token distribution: 'There is no allocation for private investors, centralized exchanges, or market makers.' Previously, PANews had conducted in-depth research on Hyperliquid's development philosophy and other content. (Related reading: With a market capitalization of over a hundred million, will the L1 public chain Hyperliquid, which focuses on derivatives trading, become the new gold mine for MEME?)
According to Hyperliquid's official information, Hyperliquid EVM is currently live on the testnet, but integration with other L1 states has not yet been completed. In the short term, it seems that it cannot use cross-chain bridges for asset transfers like other L1s. Additionally, as an L1, Hyperliquid's ecosystem is not well-established, with everything from the browser to DEX being operated by Hyperliquid itself. This approach has its pros and cons; the advantage is that all technological innovations and development focuses on improving the performance of the decentralized derivatives exchange, serving to create a decentralized Binance. The downside is that it may be difficult to expand the brand influence through ecosystem expansion.
From Hyperliquid's official social media management perspective, besides announcements, it hardly shares any other content. This is a persistent simplicity, but in the crypto field, which is keen on hype and momentum, it is indeed unique.
However, the recent popularity of Hyperliquid once again confirms that any marketing gimmick pales in comparison to price increases.
