Hyperliquid could have the most valuable airdrop ever

This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe . No question that HYPE is now technically the largest airdrop in crypto history, at least in terms of paper value. Hyperliquid’s new coin could soon also be the most valuable airdropped token to date. The team behind the popular perps-DEX-slash-layer-1 initially designated 310 million tokens for the airdrop, with more than 94,000 addresses eligible. So far, about 270.94 million HYPE has been claimed, per this dashboard from ASXN, equivalent to ~87% of the total. At current prices, the HYPE sent out would fetch almost $7.6 billion altogether. That officially beats Uniswap’s UNI distribution from September 2020, which until now was generally considered crypto’s biggest airdrop. At UNI’s peak in May 2021, the paper value of the airdrop surpassed $6.4 billion, more than a billion less than the current value of HYPE’s. UNI’s airdrop was still larger in scope. Tokens were initially sent to more than a quarter of a million addresses that had, at some point, used the DEX. Almost 94% of those addresses netted under 412 tokens, which was only slightly above the minimum allotment of 400 UNI (now worth $6,500). According to a Dune analysis , more than 250 addresses — liquidity whales, $SOCKS holders and power users — had meanwhile received an eye-twitching 250,000 UNI ($4 million at current prices). Two years later, 93% of recipients had dumped all their tokens. At that point, only 2% were still holding and only 1% had increased their position. It’s been less than three weeks since the HYPE airdrop, so it’s too early to say whether its token generation event will be any stickier. HYPE has, however, only gone up since, tripling from $3.81 to $28 as of this morning. That gives HYPE a market cap of $9 billion — only 9% short of UNI — and a fully diluted value of $27 billion. Unlike the UNI airdrop, almost 12% of HYPE recipients received between 5,000 and 10,000 tokens, now worth $140,000 and $280,000, respectively. 4.3% were in the top bracket, which received 10,000 tokens or more, while 57% found themselves in the lowest tranche of up to 100 HYPE ($2,800). Still, as Hyperliquid’s TVL grows beyond $3.2 billion (now eighth behind Arbitrum and ahead of Sui), some airdrop recipients do appear to have sold their stash. Earlier today, 182 of the top 500 addresses to receive the airdrop no longer held any tokens at all, according to ASXN data. That includes addresses that netted between 1.95 million ($44.6 million) and just under 100,000 HYPE ($2.8 million). Dozens of others are now holding up to 75% fewer tokens, although it’s unclear whether they’ve actually sold, as they may have simply moved their tokens to another address, or otherwise deposited them to a supporting exchange. At the same time, 58 of the top 500 (around 11%) have added to their holdings since the airdrop. Something tells me many more — especially those who didn’t receive the airdrop — are now waiting for a dip. Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter . Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter . Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more. The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.