HYPE surges 60% after multi-billion dollar Airdrop

The DeFi (DeFi) protocol Hyperliquid has joined the ranks of the largest airdrops in history with the launch event on November 29, distributing 310 million HYPE Tokens to its community. At the start, the HYPE Token was priced at $3.90, bringing the total distribution value to $1.2 billion, according to data from CoinGecko. The Token's value increased by 63% within about 12 hours, with the reported trading price at $6.16. Its market capitalization is now approaching $2 billion.

Hyperliquid is a layer-1 blockchain based on the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, designed to handle up to 200,000 transactions per second. The HYPE Token is the center of the ecosystem, serving as both a staking asset for consensus and the gas Token for Hyperliquid's Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible layer, called HyperEVM. According to the protocol, they have distributed 31% of the 1 billion HYPE Tokens in the genesis event, with 38.8% of the remaining supply allocated for future emissions and community rewards, 6% for the Hyper Foundation treasury, and 0.3% for grants. ## Largest Airdrops The Hyperliquid airdrop is ranked among the largest in DeFi history. In September 2020, the Uniswap airdrop distributed 400 UNI Tokens to over 250K addresses, with each Token initially valued around $3.40 — making the distribution value for each recipient approximately $1,300. While many users quickly withdrew their Tokens, the holders witnessed the value of UNI surge beyond $42 just a few months later, during the DeFi summer of 2021. Another notable airdrop was executed by the Arbitrum protocol in 2023, distributing its native ARB Token to over 625K eligible wallets, with a market value of around $1.30 per Token, totaling $812,500. Airdrops are the free distribution of new or existing Tokens of a blockchain protocol. They can serve various purposes, from incentivizing early users to promoting new cryptocurrencies. Compiled by Bitcoin News