Decentralized exchange Hyperliquid has recently come under scrutiny following a sharp rally in its HYPE token, which coincided with allegations of whale-driven manipulation on the platform.
On August 27, analytics firm SpotOnChain reported that a group of large wallets had pushed the price of XPL up by 200% to $1.80 before quickly retracing. This sudden move resulted in the transfer of millions between traders, with the main orchestrator of the manipulation reportedly gaining over $15 million. Three other wallets also booked profits ranging from $9 million to $13 million, while those caught on the wrong side of the swing lost over $6.5 million combined. Another blockchain platform, Lookonchain, noted that whales shorting XPL had to inject liquidity to protect their positions, with one trader depositing $44 million USDC and another moving $29 million USDC into the protocol to prevent liquidation.
Despite the controversy surrounding the manipulation claims, Hyperliquid’s HYPE token reached a new all-time high of $51.05 on August 27, marking a 10% increase in 24 hours according to data from CryptoSlate. This milestone surpassed the token’s previous high of $48.55 in July. While prices have since corrected to around $48.8, the token still showed a 7.5% daily gain at the time of writing.
The momentum seen in HYPE token prices reflects broader growth across Hyperliquid’s trading platform. DefiLlama data revealed that in July, Hyperliquid processed $330.8 billion in combined spot and perpetual volume, outpacing Robinhood’s $237.8 billion across all asset classes. This represented a 39% lead for Hyperliquid, marking the third consecutive month that it had surpassed the US trading giant. Industry observers believe that the growth trajectory for the decentralized trading platform could continue.
Blockworks researcher Carlos noted that Hyperliquid generated nearly $100 million in revenue over the past 30 days, outperforming several established Layer 1 networks. He also highlighted that Hyperliquid’s spot volumes for Bitcoin, ETH, and Solana matched or exceeded those of Bitstamp and Kraken this month. Additionally, derivatives activity on the platform rose to nearly 14% of Binance’s futures market, a significant increase from just 2% a year earlier.
Given these developments, Carlos suggested that Hyperliquid is poised to continue taking market share away from centralized exchanges (CEXs) in the future. Overall, despite the controversy surrounding the recent manipulation claims, Hyperliquid’s growth and performance metrics indicate a promising outlook for the decentralized exchange platform.