Hyperliquid's Airdrop Became the Largest in History. Major Token Distributions

The Hyperliquid project distributes $9 billion worth of tokens to active participants. Which cryptocurrency projects have distributed the most tokens to the community?

The cryptocurrency exchange Hyperliquid (HYPE), launched in late November, has become the largest airdrop in the cryptocurrency market, significantly outperforming other projects.

The HYPE token, launched by the Hyperliquid trading platform, has increased in price by over 1.500% since its launch on 29 November, reaching around $28 by 16 December. The token's capitalisation exceeded $9.2 billion, enabling the project to become the largest airdrop in the cryptocurrency market. The HYPE token also entered the top 30 largest crypto assets by capitalisation.

What distinguishes Hyperliquid from its competitors launching tokens via airdrop this year is its choice of crypto asset distribution strategy. In total, Hyperliquid issued and distributed 31% (310 million) of HYPE tokens. Such a high percentage of tokens distributed to the community at launch is unusual for most large airdrops this year. According to Keyrock, a large airdrop is considered such when 10% of the tokens are distributed at launch. Giving away more than 30% of the tokens, as Hyperliquid did, is an extremely rare strategy for entry into the open market.

Keyrock explained that the success of the model with a high percentage of tokens distributed at launch is due to the fact that the projects have ample room for growth and offer a psychological comfort that attracts investors. In contrast, projects with a low percentage distributed have difficulty maintaining momentum as the expected growth potential is limited due to the future entry of many tokens into the market.

So, Hyperliquid has become the largest airdrop on the market, with an indicator of over $9 billion. Not all products reach the estimated airdrop value of $1 billion, and below is a list of projects that come close to this figure.

Uniswap (UNI)

Uniswap is the world's largest decentralised trading platform, with a daily trading volume of $2.5 billion, according to Defillama as of 16 December. Their airdrop was worth $6.43 billion. The project, like Hyperliquid, had a high share of distributed tokens at launch (60 per cent).

Apecoin (APE)

ApeCoin is a cryptocurrency project associated with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), a popular collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and is also associated with the Otherside gaming metaverse. The value of distributed tokens was $3.54 billion and the distribution share at the time of launch was about 25 per cent.

Jupiter (JUP)

Jupiter is a so-called liquidity aggregator, which acts as a decentralised exchange that enables the exchange of tokens between different trading services supported on the Solana blockchain. The 1-inch aggregator on the Ethereum network works on the same principle. Jupiter distributed 13.5 per cent of the tokens at the start and the maximum valuation of the airdrop reached $2.4 billion.

dYdX (DYDX)

The dYdX exchange is one of the largest decentralised trading platforms on the market, with a daily volume of around $700 million. In the beginning, the share of token distribution to the community was about 6%. The value of the airdrop has reached $2.01 billion.

Arbitrum (ARB)

Arbitrum is the largest second-tier network built on top of Ethereum. The project is the largest airdrop in 2023, having distributed tokens that have reached a value of $1.97 billion. The supply at the beginning was about 13%.

Starknet (STRK)

Starkent is a decentralised second-tier network based on Ethereum, which initially distributed 13.4% of tokens. The main distinguishing feature of the project was the development of its own programming language, different from that of its competitors and from the Ethereum blockchain itself. The price of the airdrop reached $1.9 billion.

Ethereum Name Service (ENS)

Ethereum Name Service is a project that aims to create easy-to-read cryptocurrency addresses and decentralised domain names based on Ethereum's blockchain. The project has distributed about 30 per cent of the tokens to the community and the cost of airdrop has reached $1.87 billion.

LooksRare (LOOKS)

LooksRare is a marketplace specialising in non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The project distributed its tokens to participants of the OpenSea exchange, which does not have its own token. Initially, the project issued about 15% of the tokens and the maximum total airdrop value was $712 million.