Since December 2024, whale movements in the Hyperliquid ecosystem have emerged as a decisive force behind HYPE token's price structure and liquidity balance. Large investors abandoned quick trades for a strategy of phased accumulation and staking, creating an atmosphere of controlled growth rather than speculative swings. The impact extended beyond price to the protocol's total value locked (TVL) and consistent fee generation.
Whale Accumulation: Staggered Buys from $7.91 to 250,000+ HYPE
In early December 2024, one Hyperliquid whale wallet began making regular spot purchases of roughly 20,849 HYPE per transaction. Initial buys were executed at $7.91, with subsequent transactions concentrated between $8.10 and $8.69. This tiered approach quickly lifted the wallet's holdings from single-digit positions to over 250,000 HYPE. The key was minimizing slippage by tapping into both decentralized and centralized exchange liquidity pools.
Transaction patterns indicated planned purchases, not impulsive ones — each batch integrated flows from on-chain and off-chain sources. Similar accumulation behavior appeared in other large wallets during the same period, pointing to pre-staking positioning rather than short-term speculation. As more liquid supply shifted into staking, exchange balances dropped, easing downward pressure on the token.
TVL Surged from $2B to $6B, Daily Fees $3M–$10M
Throughout 2025, Hyperliquid's TVL climbed steadily: starting at around $2 billion early in the year, it reached nearly $6 billion by the end of summer. This growth was not fueled by temporary capital inflows but by genuine trading volumes and fee generation. Daily fee revenue typically ranged between $3 million and $10 million, signaling active capital usage within the protocol. Although TVL retracted to the $4–5 billion range in the final quarter, maintaining that level reinforced the concept of "sticky liquidity."
In January 2026, a large HYPE holder moved roughly 665,000 tokens to Bybit, realizing a profit of about $7.04 million. This investor had first accumulated HYPE at an average price of $11.50 in late 2024 and chose staking over active trading. The staking rewards, with an approximate annual percentage yield of 2.3%, incrementally boosted the total balance. Due to Hyperliquid's one-day lock and seven-day unstaking queue, the exit was clearly a premeditated strategy.
Around the same time, a report highlighted that whales in the dYdX ecosystem were similarly unwinding staking positions and making measured transfers to centralized exchanges, suggesting an emerging pattern across derivative DEXs.