Hypeliquid team’s future sell-off is hanging over HYPE price action. After the first unlock on the 29th of November, the project team got 1.745 million HYPE, which most expected could hit the markets soon.
About 235K HYPE was staked, while 609K HYPE was sold via OTC through Flowdesk. Over 900K HYPE remained on the Spot market.
A week later, on-chain data showed the two team members offloaded another 75K HYPE, worth over $2.2 million. Additionally, another team member’s wallet staked an extra 75K HYPE.
Will monthly unlocks weigh on HYPE price?
But this was the first monthly unlock, which will run up to October 2027, releasing about 10 million HYPE at the end of every month.
The team’s allocations are the most watched because analysts believe they will be the first to dump to pay themselves for building the leading perpetual DEX platform.
Source: Tokenomist
Interestingly, the recent movement suggests that each team member will choose a different strategy for their unlocked HYPE. However, it is likely that these unlocked tokens will end up being sold in the market.
According to Delphi Digital analyst Jason, it will be easier to gauge future selling pressure after a few months of unlocks.
“I’m going to wait and see how the market digests this unlock and the next ones. Before I’m comfortably able to extrapolate what sell pressures might look like, I need to observe how much is offset by protocol revenue.”
Following the news of the latest team dump, HYPE briefly slipped below $30. This marked a decline of about 17% from this week’s high of $36.
Source: HYPE/USDT, TradingView
On the price charts, the key support zone lay at the $25-$28 (white area), which was a breakout area during the early 2025 recovery. Whether the Fed rate decision will change the trajectory remains to be seen.
Sentiment vs market dynamics
However, the Funding Rates declined from mid-week, underscoring the flip to bearish sentiment in the past few days.
Source: CoinGlass
That said, the demand side has also improved, especially after a recent Hyperliquid Strategies and Sonnet merger that could offer a new treasury demand for the crypto asset.
But the current contracted markets could also affect HYPE’s traction and buyback program. In the 24 hours, for example, the project bought back 21,700 HYPE tokens; however, due to emission from stakers (26.7K HYPE), there were over 5K HYPE in inflationary tokens on the market.
Source: X
So, unless the treasury bid picks up or market sentiment improves, HYPE could be under pressure ahead of more monthly unlocks.
Final Thoughts
- The Hyperliquid team offloaded more tokens from the November unlock.
- The ongoing buyback program is not enough to offset the selling pressure in the current environment.