Unpicking Hyperliquid’s golden airdrop, the most lucrative token giveaway of all time | by Mark Dewolf | The Capital | Mar, 2025

Excluding enterprise capital and prioritizing early fanatics turned out to be a successful mixture for the DeFi token

On the finish of final 12 months, crypto Twitter was raving in regards to the newest airdrop. Nothing new there — buzzy airdrop bulletins blast into social newsfeeds each week. However this time the hype was actual. The truth is, HyperLiquid ($HYPE) had pulled off one of the vital extraordinary airdrops ever.

The corporate took a really completely different path to market, reserving the lion’s share for early customers with no set-asides for VCs, centralized exchanges, or market makers.

A cult-like following, pent-up VC demand, and kudos from analysts culminated in probably the most profitable airdrop in historical past, valued at near $7.5 billion on the finish of 2024.

It was so singularly profitable that analysts now surprise how sustainable the community-first method actually is. Did HYPE break the mould, solely to interrupt its personal mannequin?

• Created by Hyperliquid Labs, Hyperliquid is a DeFi-focused L1 blockchain created to host the undertaking’s flagship futures trade, Hyperliquid DEX.
• In November 2024, Hyperliquid launched its HYPE token through airdrop.
• The airdrop grew to become probably the most profitable of all time, value about $7.5 billion on the finish of 2024.

Hyperliquid is a layer one (L1) blockchain constructed to host decentralized finance (DeFi) functions. It makes use of delegated Proof of Stake (PoS or dPOS) secured by a consensus mechanism referred to as HyperBFT.

Hyperliquid says it might probably deal with throughput of 100,000 orders per second, recording each order, cancellation, commerce, and liquidation with block latency of lower than one second.

A notice to traders from ETF and Mutual Fund supervisor VanEck calls Hyperliquid a “hybrid blockchain” that may be thought-about each a layer 1 (L1) and a layer three (L3).

Working its personal set of validators makes Hyperliquid an L1, VanEck analysts wrote. Nonetheless, since most of Hyperliquid’s buying and selling capital is in USDC stablecoin, which is bridged from the Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 (L2) chain Arbitrum, Hyperliquid successfully turns into an L3 — depending on each Arbitrum and Ethereum for the state of USDC tokens.

This twin framework was chosen, VanEck added, as a result of it permits Hyperliquid to optimize its blockchain to course of many extra TPS than different blockchains whereas additionally giving Ethereum customers a safer, extra responsive bridge.

“The L1 structure offers Hyperliquid a scaling benefit over opponents whereas the L3 framework offers Hyperliquid entry to Ethereum’s huge base of customers and belongings.”

The Hyperliquid DEX, a completely on-chain order ebook perpetual futures trade, is the undertaking’s flagship software. Initially, Hyperliquid’s L1 was optimized for the Hyperliquid DEX. Low charges, clear on-chain trades, as much as 50x leverage, and one-click buying and selling are a few of its primary options.

Though Hyperliquid had earlier introduced in April 2023 that the undertaking has no plans to “help general-purpose sensible contracts” on the Hyperliquid L1, it’s at the moment creating a general-purpose Ethereum digital machine (EVM) referred to as HyperEVM.

The HyperEVM is just not a separate chain however relatively secured by the identical HyperBFT consensus as the remainder of the L1. This lets the EVM work together immediately with the native parts of the L1, resembling spot and perp order books,” stated Hyperliquid.

The corporate behind the undertaking, Hyperliquid Labs, is led by CEO Jeff Basedzos and a gaggle of tech heavyweights from Harvard, CalTech, and MIT. Members of Hyperliquid Labs have additionally beforehand labored at Airtable, Citadel, Hudson River Buying and selling, and Nuro.

The crew initially labored on proprietary market-making in crypto in 2020, later increasing to develop DeFi options in 2022.

In line with Hyperliquid’s official web site, Hyperliquid Labs is a self-funded crew and has not taken exterior capital.

HYPE, the native token of Hyperliquid L1, is designed for staking and fuel payment cost on HyperEVM.

Previous to the airdrop, Hyperliquid stated tokens allotted to core contributors can be locked for one 12 months after genesis, and that almost all token vesting schedules can be accomplished between 2027 and 2028.

No tokens had been allotted to personal traders, centralized exchanges, or market makers.

Listed here are the important thing HYPE token tokenomics as of January 9, 2025:

In a 12 months marked by crypto neighborhood frustration over sky-high valuations of enterprise capital-backed tokens, and criticism of “low float, excessive absolutely diluted valuations (FDV)” available in the market, Hyperliquid’s community-first method re-invigorated a bloated crypto airdrop market.

The undertaking was rewarded for its egalitarian method and has gained a type of cult standing amongst crypto trustworthy, not least as a result of it seems to have the promise utility and vary of makes use of circumstances promised by its founders.

In March 2025, the Hyperliquid DEX is extensively thought-about the most effective perpetual futures DEX. Figures from DefiLlama recirded a 24-hour quantity in of over $6.19 billion in Mid-February. Solana-based Jupiter got here in second with a quantity of $983.2 million.