Hyperliquid Labs just circled a big date on the calendar: January 6.
That’s when team members receive their first batch of HYPE tokens 1.2 million in total, worth about $31.2 million. And this isn’t a one-off drop. It kicks off a structured vesting plan that eventually unlocks nearly one-quarter of the project’s entire supply.
Co-founder Iliensinc confirmed the plan inside Discord: expect distributions on the 6th of every month. The team even unstaked tokens specifically to make this first payout happen. Translation? This schedule is locked in.
Now, let’s talk numbers.
HYPE has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. Roughly 237 million of those belong to core contributors under a long-term vesting program. According to DeFiLlama, there’s a one-year lockup first, then gradual unlocks over 24 months.
Back in November 2024, Hyperliquid ran its genesis event and dropped around 310 million tokens to early users and community members. Today, circulating supply sits near 238.4 million. That means more than 60% of the supply is still waiting on the sidelines.
Here’s the surprising part: HYPE trades around $26, giving it a $6.2 billion circulating market cap and a fully diluted valuation north of $25 billion. And despite the unlock chatter, which usually triggers fear and selling, price action has stayed relatively steady.
Why? One reason may be token burns.
The Hyper Foundation is proposing to burn nearly $1 billion worth of tokens routed to the Assistance Fund. Fees automatically flow into a wallet that nobody can access, effectively removing those tokens forever. Less supply. More scarcity. Stronger narrative.
Operationally, Hyperliquid still leads decentralized perpetuals by total trading volume. But the landscape is shifting. Platforms like Lighter on Ethereum and Aster on BNB Chain are gaining traction — and slowly chipping away at market share.
What we don’t have yet are full details on the entire vesting roadmap. Leadership has shared the cadence, but not the granular breakdown. That balance — rewarding the team without flooding the market — is exactly what investors will be watching next.
Bottom line:
Token unlocks aren’t automatically bearish. But they do change psychology and incentives. If Hyperliquid can maintain volume growth while managing unlocks and burns strategically, HYPE’s story stays compelling.
