Key Highlights
- On December 29, the HYPE token witnessed a surge of over 3% on a daily chart, soaring its value to $25.89
- This surge comes after the cryptocurrency exchange announced a major token distribution with 1.2 million unstaked HYPE tokens
- In 2025, Hyperliquid generated $844 million in revenue
On December 29, Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, witnessed a small rally with a 3.5% surge on a daily chart, climbing its value to $26.24 with an impressive market capitalization of $8.89 billion.
According to CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency is trading at around $26. This spike in cryptocurrency follows a $90,000 rally in Bitcoin and an impressive performance of the decentralized exchange in 2025.
Despite the spike in HYPE, the Community Sentiment Index still shows 67% bullish and 33% bearish.
HYPE Soars Ahead of Major Token Distribution for Team
On December 28, Hyperliquid co-founder Iliensinc informed the community via Discord that a major token distribution is set to begin. Hyperliquid Labs has unstaked 1.2 million tokens, worth approximately $31 million at current prices, for allocation to the project’s main team members.
The first distribution is scheduled for January 6, 2026, initiating the official start of a pre-defined vesting schedule for team rewards.
This event is part of the project’s established 24-month linear vesting plan for the team allocation, which constitutes 23.8% of the total token supply of 1 billion. The announcement provided clarity on the future schedule, noting that any subsequent distribution to the team will occur predictably on the 6th day of each month.
This transparency is designed to manage market expectations and help mitigate potential sudden sell pressure from the token unlocks.
The distribution is consistent with Hyperliquid’s bootstrapped, venture-capital-free model, ensuring that all token releases are internal and aligned with long-term project incentives.
This announcement has received mixed reactions from the community. Some members have praised the upfront communication, while others are watching closely for any impact on short-term token volatility.
It is noted that the platform’s ongoing token buyback program and a recent burn of 37 million HYPE provide a much-needed balance to the new tokens entering circulation.
To mark a huge achievement and express appreciation for our steadfast community, we’re releasing 400,000,000 $HYPE from the reserve!
This distribution is available to everyone in the $HYPE community!
See below for all the details… 👇
1/2 🧵 pic.twitter.com/tM3uO3eFq0
— Hyperliquid Marketing (@HyperliquldX_) December 29, 2025
Apart from this, the community has also announced the release of new tokens from the reserve.
Hyperliquid Generates $844 million in Revenue
The decentralized finance platform has achieved a new status as one of the sector’s most profitable entities following a year of growth. As a leading decentralized perpetual futures exchange built on its own dedicated blockchain, Hyperliquid generated approximately $844 million in revenue during 2025, according to ASXN Data.
One of the major sources of this revenue came from trading fees from its main derivatives products, which put the cryptocurrency exchange among the top revenue-generating protocols in the entire crypto sector.
$HYPE strength is impressive. not sure if it’s just because of LIT coming out here but it’s been decently stable the last few weeks. Maybe local bottom…
still no real views on HyperLiquid from a several month standpoint. Everyone wants to buy this sub $20. we’ll see how low it… pic.twitter.com/zl8Ng69IGF
— Altcoin Sherpa (@AltcoinSherpa) December 29, 2025
Apart from this, the platform recorded a cumulative trading volume of $2.95 trillion for the year, which averages to a daily volume of $8.34 billion. Data shows that perpetual contracts alone contributed $848 million in fees, which helped the platform generate $808 million in revenue.
According to some experts, the token is showing a strong resilience to the ongoing turmoil in the market. While it is unclear if this stability is directly linked to the upcoming release of the LIT tokens, the price has shown relative steadiness over the past few weeks. It suggests that a potential local price floor may have been established.
Tulip King stated in the post on X, “If lighter volume is sustained after TGE then it validates the existence of alternative perps DEXes but contingent on a race to zero fees, imo the whole sector would need to reprice down. If lighter volume returns to hyperliquid, then this is a phenomenal price to buy hype at.”
Also Read: HYPE Burn Approved by Validators, Price Experiences a Dip
