Arthur Hayes’ Top Pick Hyperliquid To Unlock $375M In Tokens

• Hyperliquid is set to unlock 9.92 million tokens, worth approximately $375.84 million, on Monday, representing 2.66% of its released supply.
• Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, set a $150 price target for the Hyperliquid token by August 2026, which is higher than four times the current price.
• He cited the platform's buyback model and revenue growth from new permissionless trading markets.

Hyperliquid (HYPE), one of the largest decentralized crypto trading platforms, is set to unlock 9.92 million tokens worth roughly $375.84 million on Monday.

The 9.92 million HYPE tokens represent around 2.66% of Hyperliquid's total released supply of 415.3 million tokens, out of a total supply of 1 billion, according to on-chain data platform Tokenomist.

Hyperliquid is a decentralized perpetual futures exchange, a platform where users can trade crypto assets with leverage without a central company controlling their funds. All unlocked tokens will go to core contributors according to Tokenomist. This means that team members, rather than investors or the public. Similar-sized unlocks have occurred last month, suggesting a structured release schedule.

Hyperliquid’s token was trading over $35, down by 1.4% over the past 24 hours, ahead of the token unlock. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around HYPE remained in the ‘bearish’ zone, while chatter levels improved from ‘normal’ to ‘high’ over the past day. 

Arthur Hayes Sees HYPE Reaching $150 By August

A token unlock occurs when previously locked tokens, held back from the open market to prevent early holders from immediately selling, become available for trading. 

The unlock comes as Hyperliquid remains one of the most closely watched tokens among crypto traders, partly due to a bullish call from Arthur Hayes, co-founder of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX and founder of investment firm Maelstrom. Last month, Hayes wrote, "No other project in all of crypto hands as much money back to token holders as Hyperliquid” on Medium.

Last month, Hayes also set a price target of $150 for HYPE, which he said will be realized by August this year. This is roughly four times its price of over $35. 

Hayes argued that Hyperliquid is the highest-revenue-generating decentralized project in crypto, excluding stablecoins, and that 97% of its revenue is used to buy back HYPE tokens on the open market, a structure he said no other project matches. He also pointed to the platform's expansion into permissionless listings of commodities and stock index perps through its HIP-3 protocol as a key revenue driver, and flagged an upcoming HIP-4 prediction market launch as a potential bonus. 

Hayes noted that even in a stress-test scenario, where the team distributes the full 9.92 million tokens monthly and the market only prices HYPE at 12 times earnings, the token would still be approximately 75% above its then-current price.

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