Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, which has been on an upward trend over the past few days, saw a 20% price drop today, trading at $26.54, while its market cap fell below $9 billion.
Hyperliquid (HYPE) rose to a record high of $34.96 on December 22, rising from its airdrop listing price of $11 and posting a cumulative gain of nearly 200%. Its market cap exceeded $11.5 billion at the time, securing a spot among the top 20 coins by market cap, according to CoinGecko.
Launched in June 2023, Hyperliquid DEX has gained traction due to its innovative approach to eliminating gas fees for transactions. The platform offers low fees for perpetual contracts and trade openings, with revenue reinvested into the ecosystem through token buybacks or by supporting ecosystem vaults.
HYPE price rallied after one of the most anticipated token airdrops of the year. Hyperliquid distributed 310 million tokens to its users, marking the largest airdrop in cryptocurrency history.
However, the altcoin’s price suffered a setback due to growing concerns within its community, making HYPE the top trending coin on CoinGecko. HYPE fell 26% from its all-time high set yesterday, hitting Dec. an intraday low of $25.77. 23. The plunge saw its market cap fall to $8.87 billion, making it the 23rd largest crypto asset at press time.
Why did HYPE fail?
The price of HYPE fell after community members noticed that a large whale, identified as X user Laurentzeimes, began selling over 1 million HYPE tokens.
The sales were carried out using Hyperliquid DEX’s Time-Weighted Average Price (TWAP) mechanism.