Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, traded at $92.60 on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, as a scheduled release of 3.75 million tokens to the project’s core contributors reached its distribution date. The batch, valued at about $337 million, is the largest single token unlock on this week’s crypto calendar.
The token was up 1.4% over 24 hours and held above $91 through the session. The unlock is not expected to reach public exchanges right away, because Hyperliquid Labs, the team that built the network, is selling the full batch privately to a single institutional buyer.
HYPE Price Today
HYPE was quoted at $92.60, or 0.001085 BTC, on October 6. The token traded between a 24-hour low of $91.11 and a high of $95.21, then eased back toward $92.60 late in the session.
Hyperliquid is a layer-1 (L1) blockchain that runs a decentralized exchange (DEX) for perpetual futures, which are derivative contracts with no expiry date. HYPE is the network’s native token, used for staking, governance, and trading-fee discounts.
The CoinGecko data showed the following market figures at the time of writing: Fully diluted valuation is the token’s price multiplied by its total supply, including locked tokens. Total value locked (TVL) measures the assets deposited in a network’s applications. Open interest is the total value of derivative positions that remain open.
HYPE remains far above its all-time low of $3.81, recorded shortly after the token’s genesis airdrop on November 29, 2024. The token set a series of record highs in August and September, including a new peak near $94.48 on September 19.
What Unlocks on October 6
A token unlock is the scheduled release of tokens that were previously locked under a vesting plan. Today’s release goes to Hyperliquid’s core contributors, the team members, and builders who receive tokens over time instead of all at once.
Tokenomist, a token-supply analytics platform, lists the October 6 core-contributor release at 3.75 million HYPE, worth about $336.75 million. That equals 1.69% of the token’s unlocked supply. Tokenomist marked the dollar value at prices from October 4; at Tuesday’s $92.60 quote, the same batch is worth about $347 million.
The 3.75 million figure is the amount Hyperliquid’s team has committed to claim. It is not the full scheduled whitepaper amount of 9.92 million HYPE that some unlock calendars still display, Tokenomist noted. The committed claim is about 38% of that ceiling.
Core contributors hold 23.8% of HYPE’s 1 billion max supply, according to Tokenomist’s Hyperliquid allocation data. That allocation sat behind a one-year cliff after genesis, meaning no tokens were released during the first year. Since January 2026, Hyperliquid Labs has made monthly team distributions on the 6th of each month, beginning with 1.2 million HYPE on January 6.
Why the Unlock May Not Hit the Order Book Today
Hyperliquid Labs is unstaking 3.75 million HYPE for the October team payout and selling the full batch over the counter (OTC) to a single institutional buyer, according to co-founder iliensinc on the project’s Discord, as reported by Tokenomist. An OTC trade is a private deal between two parties that is settled directly rather than through an exchange’s public order book.
Because the tokens change hands off-exchange, they do not need to be absorbed by public buy orders. That could limit immediate selling pressure around the unlock. However, the buyer, the sale price, and any holding period have not been disclosed, so the tokens could still reach exchanges later.
The timing follows Hyperliquid’s staking rules. Transfers from a staking account back to a spot account pass through a 7-day unstaking queue, according to Hyperliquid’s documentation. Tokenomist said on-chain flows once the tokens settle after October 7 will be the clearest signal of where the batch goes.
Hyperliquid also runs an ongoing buyback program through its Assistance Fund, a protocol mechanism that converts trading fees into HYPE. Buybacks totaled $11.81 million over the past week, down from $14.81 million the week before, Tokenomist data showed. The weekly figure equals about 3.5% of the unlock’s dollar value.
Cumulative burns, meaning tokens permanently removed from supply, reached roughly 47.48 million HYPE as of October 3. Fee-funded burns reduce supply gradually. They are not sized to offset a single $337 million release in one session. The Crypto Times has previously covered how Hyperliquid’s buyback model compares with Ethereum’s burn rate.
How HYPE Has Reacted to Past Unlocks
Previous releases have not produced a single pattern. Tokenomist’s Hyperliquid page describes HYPE’s price as showing medium volatility in the seven days after past unlocks, adding that the impact depends on who receives the tokens and on market conditions.
A notable recent example came on August 27, when a 14.18 million HYPE unlock landed on the same day the token marked a then-record high near $86.71. HYPE slipped to about $81.25 two days later before resuming its climb into September.
Key Price Levels to Watch
On the 24-hour chart, the session low of $91.11 is the nearest support, a level where buying has recently stepped in. The session high of $95.21 is the nearest resistance, a level where selling has recently capped gains.
A hold above the $91 area while the OTC batch stays off exchanges would suggest the supply is being absorbed privately. A move below that range alongside rising exchange deposits would suggest unlocked tokens are reaching the open market. These are conditions to monitor, not forecasts.
Other Unlocks and the Wider Market
Scheduled cliff unlocks across tracked tokens this week total about $399 million, counting HYPE at its committed claim. A cliff unlock releases a block of tokens on a single date. HYPE leads the list, followed by Ethena (ENA), Aptos (APT), io.net (IO), and Babylon (BABY).
The wider market backdrop remains mixed. Bitcoin (BTC) briefly moved above $86,000 on October 2 after a weaker-than-expected US jobs report, and traders leaned toward a Federal Reserve hold at the October 27 to 28 policy meeting.
Hyperliquid’s trading activity has stayed high through the period. The network led public chains and ecosystems with nearly $240 billion in 30-day perpetual futures volume in mid-September. For now, the next clear read on the October payout will come from on-chain wallet flows after the tokens settle.
Also Read: Bitcoin Price Today: BTC Holds $85,500 as $172M Liquidations & ETF Outflows Hit Before Fed Minutes
