Crypto Funds Queue $150 Million in HYPE Unstaking as Hyperliquid Token Slides

Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, dropped over 8% to touch intraday lows of $57.39 before staging a modest rebound to $59.19, driven by an influx of unstaking requests from high-profile institutional investors totaling nearly $150 million.

Data from institutional flow tracker Block Liquidity reveals that venture firm Multicoin Capital initiated pending withdrawals for roughly $116 million worth of HYPE—representing approximately 83% of its total $138.78 million staked position. Additional unbonding requests emerged from Galaxy Digital, which queued $29.4 million, and Selini Capital, which queued $4.4 million. In a separate transaction, a wallet linked to Multicoin Capital transferred 167,000 HYPE tokens, valued at approximately $11.2 million, to exchange platform Coinbase.

The sudden accumulation in the unbonding queue has introduced a significant supply overhang for HYPE, which enforces a five-to-seven-day protocol waiting period before staked assets become fully liquid. Market participants expressed concern primarily due to the severe imbalance between the upcoming token unlocks and the spot market’s constrained depth. While perpetual futures contract volumes for HYPE regularly exceed $400 million daily, spot trading activity recorded just $72.8 million across a 28-hour monitoring period. Market maker Wintermute emerged as the largest spot accumulator during the dip, absorbing over $9 million in net purchases according to trade data monitored by CoinGecko and on-chain analytics.

The market anxiety stems partly from the architectural mechanics of Hyperliquid, a layer-1 blockchain engineered specifically for high-throughput decentralized perpetual trading. Under the network’s HIP-3 framework, third-party developers can deploy custom perpetual markets by depositing a slashable security bond of 500,000 HYPE. Selini Capital’s withdrawal appears connected to the winding down of DreamCash, an ecosystem project that launched USDT-denominated perpetual pairs under HIP-3. DreamCash struggled to capture market share against the prevailing USDC liquidity pools across the broader platform, prompting the shutdown of its markets and the subsequent retrieval of the staked security bond.

Meanwhile, Multicoin Capital managing partner Tushar Jain publicly addressed the market speculation on X, stating that the firm’s unstaked assets were not intended for open-market liquidation. The fund has continued to expand its footprint within the ecosystem, recently leading a $1.75 million seed financing round for Trasia, a non-custodial trading venue building Asian equity perpetual contracts on top of the Hyperliquid infrastructure. Industry observers note that institutional token movements often reflect capital reallocations, validation updates, or structured OTC deployments rather than immediate market dumping, though traders remain cautious as the unbonding window approaches.