HYPE drops 4% to $87 as team starts $330M token deal

Hyperliquid Labs has completed the seven-day unstaking of 3.75 million HYPE worth roughly $330 million, allowing tokens tied to a private institutional deal to begin moving across wallets.

Onchain Lens reported on Oct. 7 that the tokens had reached Hyperliquid Labs’ spot balance, with 1.875 million HYPE subsequently sent across five addresses. Each wallet initially received 375,000 tokens, representing half of the 3.75 million-HYPE allocation.

The tracker said the tokens were linked to an over-the-counter, or OTC, agreement with an undisclosed institution and would not be sold directly through the open market. An OTC transaction allows two parties to arrange a transfer privately without placing the entire order onto a public exchange order book.

HYPERLIQUID LABS STARTS $330M HYPE OTC DISTRIBUTION

Unstaking of 3.75M $HYPE ($330M) has finished after 7 days, with the tokens now credited to Hyperliquid Labs’ spot balance.

These tokens will not be sold on the open market. Instead, the Hyperliquid Labs team has arranged an… pic.twitter.com/70MG4Qg898

— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) October 7, 2026

Earlier reporting linked the deal to Hyperliquid’s October team distribution. FinanceFeeds reported that Hyperliquid co-founder iliensinc said in the project’s Discord that the entire 3.75 million-token block was covered by an institutional OTC arrangement. The buyer, negotiated price and any restrictions on reselling the tokens were not disclosed.

HYPE tokens moved again after reaching five wallets

The first five transfers did not represent the final location of the entire allocation. Lookonchain later reported that 1.25 million HYPE, worth roughly $110.57 million at the tracker’s quoted price, had returned to staking after the initial distribution.

Another 1.875 million HYPE remained in wallet 0x8757, while 625,000 HYPE worth roughly $55 million was held in another address, according to the tracker. Combined with the 1.25 million tokens placed back into staking, the holdings account for the original 3.75 million-HYPE block.

A separate Lookonchain update said the tokens sent through the five wallets were later aggregated and linked the main receiving address to a possible institutional buyer. The tracker described the connection as a belief based on the transaction trail, not a confirmed identification of the institution.

The newer wallet activity means the five original addresses should not automatically be described as five separate final buyers. On-chain records show where tokens moved, but they do not by themselves reveal the beneficial owner or commercial agreement behind an address.

Hyperliquid’s seven-day unstaking period has ended

The timing of the transfer matches Hyperliquid’s staking rules. Official Hyperliquid documentation states that moving HYPE from a staking balance into a spot balance takes seven days after a user starts the transfer.

Hyperliquid’s support documentation says the queue lasts exactly seven days and cannot be accelerated. Unstaking from a validator and transferring the tokens from the staking balance into spot are separate steps, with the seven-day countdown beginning when the staking-to-spot transfer starts.

The 3.75 million-HYPE process began around Sept. 30, placing completion around Oct. 7. The allocation was valued near $329 million when reports of the arrangement first emerged, based on a HYPE price near $87.70. The headline dollar value represented the market value of the tokens at the time, not a disclosed OTC purchase price.

No public information has established whether the institutional counterparty paid a discount or premium. Hyperliquid Labs has not publicly disclosed a lockup period or other conditions that could restrict the buyer from moving the tokens later.

HYPE’s supply structure gives additional context to the transaction. An SEC filing for a HYPE investment product states that 23.8% of the original one billion-token supply was allocated to core contributors, with vesting continuing after an initial lockup. Another 31% went to users through the genesis distribution, while 38.89% was reserved for future emissions and rewards.

HYPE price falls 4.32% as the tokens move

At the time of writing, HYPE traded at $87.07, down 4.32% over the previous 24 hours and 2.10% over seven days.

CoinGecko shows HYPE trading near the same level on Oct. 8, with the token moving between roughly $86.67 and $91.29 during the previous 24 hours.

Trading volume stood at approximately $772.88 million over 24 hours. With roughly 220 million HYPE in circulating supply, the token carried a market capitalization of approximately $19.37 billion at the recorded price.

CoinGecko’s historical data shows HYPE closed at $88.47 on Oct. 7 after finishing Oct. 6 at $91.91 and Oct. 5 at $94.15. The decline therefore began before all of the latest wallet movements had been completed.

Available price and blockchain data do not establish that the OTC transaction caused HYPE’s decline. The reported deal took place outside public exchange order books, while 1.25 million of the 3.75 million tokens were subsequently placed back into staking.

Previous team distributions have produced different transaction patterns. As crypto.news reported in its coverage of a 433,025-HYPE team unlock, HyperLabs moved tokens through Flowdesk, OKX and Bybit-linked addresses in August. On-chain monitoring later showed that 75,000 HYPE from that batch was exchanged for USDC, providing evidence of a sale for part of the allocation.

The distinction between an unlock and a sale has surfaced during larger HYPE releases as well. In related coverage, crypto.news examined the $820 million September HYPE unlock and noted that making tokens claimable does not mean the full headline amount immediately reaches exchanges.

The buyer behind the HYPE deal remains unknown

One possible buyer has now publicly ruled itself out. Hyperliquid Strategies CEO David Schamis said that his company was not the buyer of the 3.75 million-HYPE OTC transaction.

Lookonchain separately reported Schamis’ denial on Oct. 8, referring to the transaction at a market value of roughly $320 million. Hyperliquid Strategies operates as a HYPE-focused treasury company, which had led to speculation that the firm could be connected to the block.

The institution receiving the OTC allocation therefore remains unidentified publicly. Later movements from the addresses holding the remaining HYPE may show whether more tokens return to staking, stay in wallets or move toward exchanges, but wallet activity alone cannot establish the identity of the buyer.

For the 1.25 million HYPE already returned to staking, another move back into the spot balance would trigger Hyperliquid’s seven-day staking-to-spot waiting period. The protocol’s documentation says the queue begins only once the holder initiates that transfer and cannot be shortened.