Editing Hyperliquid

**Hyperliquid** is a decentralized perpetual futures exchange running on its own layer-1 blockchain, and **HYPE** is its native token, airdropped on 29 November 2024.[^1][^2] Its listings of memecoin perpetuals, including [[Popcat]] and [[Fartcoin]], made it a venue for leveraged memecoin trading and for several manipulation incidents.[^3][^4]

## History
Jeff Yan started the project as a market-making firm in 2020; a closed mainnet alpha went live in February 2023 and full mainnet that August.[^1] Yan said the team of 11 was entirely self-funded and refused venture capital.[^1] By November 2024 it had over 220,000 users and about $2.4 billion in daily volume.[^5]

## HYPE token
HYPE has a supply of 1 billion; 31% (310 million) was airdropped at 07:30 UTC on 29 November 2024 to users who earned points in a campaign ending in May, at five tokens per point, and 23.8% went to core contributors under a one-year lock.[^5][^2] It traded near $4.2 on day one for a fully diluted value of about $4.2 billion, with more than $250 million in volume.[^2] DL News reported more than $1 billion in tokens distributed and framed the airdrop as a possible rotation away from memecoins after the post-election [[Memecoin supercycle|memecoin rally]].[^6] HYPE secures the HyperBFT proof-of-stake consensus and pays gas on HyperEVM.[^2]

## Role in trenching
[[Solana]] trading platforms such as [[Axiom]] route perpetual futures to Hyperliquid, letting memecoin traders in the [[Trenches|trenches]] take leveraged positions from the same terminal.[^7] Losses that traders' collateral cannot cover fall on HLP, Hyperliquid's community-owned liquidity vault.[^4]

## Notable events
- [[JELLYJELLY]] (March 2025): a trader shorted the Solana memecoin JELLYJELLY while a whale sold it on DEXs, HLP inherited the short and showed about $12 million in unrealized losses; validators delisted the market citing "suspicious market activity" and the Hyper Foundation pledged compensation for unflagged users.[^3] Binance and OKX listed JELLYJELLY perpetuals within about an hour.[^3]
- POPCAT (November 2025): Lookonchain said a trader withdrew $3 million from OKX, split it across 19 wallets, built a POPCAT long of $20 to 30 million, then pulled a $20 million buy wall near $0.21; the cascading liquidations left HLP about $4.9 million in bad debt.[^4]
- Fartcoin (April 2026): a trader holding about 145 million FARTCOIN across wallets lost about $3 million when the position was liquidated in thin liquidity, triggering auto-deleveraging; PeckShield said HLP was down about $1.5 million over 24 hours.[^8]

## Timeline
- 2023-02: closed mainnet alpha[^1]
- 2024-11-29: HYPE genesis and airdrop[^5][^2]
- 2025-03-26: JELLYJELLY perpetuals delisted[^3]
- 2025-11-12: POPCAT manipulation leaves HLP with $4.9 million bad debt[^4]

## See also
- [[pump.fun]]
- [[LetsBonk]]
- [[Raydium]]
- [[SunPump]]
- [[Fomo]]
- [[Jupiter]]
- [[Meteora]]
- [[Launch Coin]]

## References
1. [What Is Hyperliquid? The Decentralized Exchange With Its Own Blockchain](https://decrypt.co/resources/what-hyperliquid-decentralized-exchange-blockchain), Decrypt, 2026-06-17
2. [Hyperliquid airdrops over $1.2 billion worth of tokens to users as HYPE crosses $4 billion FDV](https://www.theblock.co/news/markets/2024-11-29-hyperliquid-airdrops-over-1-2-billion-worth-of-tokens-to-users-as-hype-crosses-4-billion-fdv-328769), The Block, 2024-11-29
3. [Hyperliquid delists JELLYJELLY memecoin amid whale manipulation fiasco](https://www.theblock.co/post/348314/hyperliquid-delists-jellyjelly-memecoin-amid-whale-manipulation-fiasco), The Block, 2025-03-26
4. [Alleged POPCAT Manipulation Hits Hyperliquid with $4.9M Loss: Blockchain Analyst](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/11/13/peak-degen-warfare-alleged-popcat-manipulation-hits-hyperliquid-with-usd4-9m-loss), CoinDesk, 2025-11-13
5. [Crypto Exchange HyperLiquid Announces Native Asset HYPE, Users to Receive 310M Tokens](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/11/28/crypto-exchange-hyper-liquid-to-airdrop-310-m-tokens-to-early-adopters), CoinDesk, 2024-11-28
6. ['Say Goodbye to memes' as DeFi exchange Hyperliquid mints wave of new crypto millionaires](https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/hyperliquid-gives-out-1-billion-usd-in-hype-tokens-to-users/), DL News, 2024-11-29
7. [Axiom exchange hits $100 million in revenue just four months after launch](https://www.theblock.co/post/355676/axiom-exchange-hits-100-million-in-revenue-just-four-months-after-launch), The Block, 2025-05-25
8. [Trader's $3M Fartcoin Bet Unravels, Triggering Hyperliquid ADL](https://cointelegraph.com/news/trader-loses-3m-fartcoin-hyperliquid-adl-liquidation), Cointelegraph, 2026-04-09