Crypto Token Just Got a HUGE Haircut! ✂️

Right then. Apparently, someone’s decided the HYPE token has a bit *too* much hype. Hence, a proposal to lop off a rather significant 45% of its supply. Probably cheaper than a good therapist, really. 🤷

 

DBA Asset Management, a firm with a worrying amount of HYPE tokens, wants to perform this, shall we say, ‘trimming’. They’ve teamed up with a crypto researcher, Hasu, who probably has charts. Lots and lots of charts. Because that’s what crypto researchers *do*. 📊

The plan? Toss a sufficient number of unissued tokens into the digital furnace – a ‘burn’, they call it, as if it’s somehow less wasteful than just…not making them in the first place. They also want to empty the Assistance Fund (presumably, it wasn’t assisting much) and, for good measure, remove the supply cap. Seems sensible. 🧐

If this goes through, that’s 421 million HYPE gone up in smoke, and another 21 million vanishing from the Assistance Fund. A grand total of missing HYPE. A tragedy? Maybe. A pre-emptive strike against existential boredom? Possibly.

Why DBA Thinks This Is A Good Idea

Jon Charbonneau, an investment manager at DBA (sounds impressive, doesn’t it?), claims this will make HYPE more appealing to investors. Apparently, having a load of tokens hanging around, randomly appearing, is… unsettling. Who knew? He also mumbled something about preserving funding for “initiatives”. Which, naturally, are top secret. 🤫

“It corrects the market’s *misvaluation*,” he says. As if the market ever actually *values* anything. It mostly just shouts loudly and hopes for the best.

Essentially, they’re trying to make the tokenomics tidier. A bit like trying to organise a goblin’s hoard. Good luck with that.

There are some sacred cows in crypto that just stick around forever and refuse to die.

The post-airdrop “50% to community” allocation, which we all know means “an amorphous slush fund that we’ll decide what to do with later” is a cow whose time has come. Good on for…

– Haseeb ＞|＜ (@hosseeb)

Supporters, like Haseeb Qureshi (managing partner at Dragonfly – another impressively named entity), called the “community allocation” a “slush fund”. A suspiciously accurate description, if you ask me. He posits that knowing *where* the tokens are will somehow make everything better. Optimism. Bless him. 🙏

The People Are… Unsure

Naturally, not everyone’s thrilled. Some argue those future tokens are key to, you know, *growth*. Imagine that! Growing things! A revolutionary concept.

A crypto pundit known as Mister Todd, has decided this is “absolutely foolish and a disaster.” A strong statement. Mister Todd is not a fan. 😠 He claims freeing up future emissions is vital, and preventing growth. Apparently he has a very large collection of HYPE, and will not be pleased.

Absolutely foolish and a disaster.

Using future emissions is the most powerful growth and competitive tool has at hand.

This would freeze in those of us with large stacks and crush growth.

Your post is one dimensional with no evidence.

– Mister Todd (@pondermint)

Others worry about having tokens to pay fines or appease whatever regulatory beast shows up with a warrant. Mr. Charbonneau assures us that setting things on fire won’t affect their ability to bribe… er, *negotiate* with said beast. 😇

HYPE did briefly touch $59.30, its highest point ever. Then, like a startled badger, it bolted back down to $46.08. Selling pressure, apparently. People don’t like uncertainty. Go figure!

Fun fact: investment firms, including the Maelstrom Fund (led by Arthur Hayes, a name that sounds like it belongs to a villain), have been offloading their HYPE like unwanted goblin souvenirs, anticipating a tidal wave of unlocks over the next two years.

ASTER is Having a Moment

While HYPE is flailing about, ASTER, its rival, is enjoying the limelight. They conducted a rather large airdrop (free money! Everyone loves free money!) and gave 53.5% of its tokens to the community. Must be nice. 🎉

Nearly 330,000 wallets joined ASTER in a single day, causing the Total Value Locked (TVL) to soar past $1 billion. Impressive. Very, very impressive. (Also slightly terrifying.)

According to DefiLlama, ASTER’s TVL is currently $1.39 billion, putting Hyperliquid in the shade for three days running. Ouch.

HYPE Price Musings

HYPE is currently… doing a thing. Specifically, wibbling about after a bit of a tumble. It’s sitting at $48.78, bumping its head against a moving average of $52.38. A firm push might get it up to $60, or it might just give up and have a lie down. 😴

Interestingly, there’s some support at $44.30. Which means, if it falls below that, things could get considerably more… exciting. (Read: bad.)

Technical indicators are hinting at bearishness, which is a fancy way of saying things aren’t looking terribly rosy. But hey, governance decisions could change everything. Probably.

The Long and Short of It

If the 45% cut goes ahead, HYPE will have a new, streamlined image. Or at least, fewer tokens. New investors might be attracted, and staking incentives might be strengthened. Or maybe people will just move on to ASTER. Who knows? 🤷‍♀️

The competition from ASTER is definitely making Hyperliquid rethink its life choices. It may need to be more generous with its tokens, or come up with some other elaborate scheme to grab attention. It’s a jungle out there.

Things are volatile in the short term, but the next few months will be interesting. Mostly because it’s unlikely to be boring. Not in crypto, anyway.