Why Hyperliquid faces $91M Multicoin supply risk despite HYPE’s ETF boost

After holding a Hyperliquid [HYPE] position for a year, a whale has secured nearly $140 million in profit. That trade began a year ago, when the holder accumulated roughly 2.89 million HYPE when the token was trading near $17.35.

Rather than cashing in profits quickly, the whale staked the tokens before later selling at a higher profit. The whale recently completed its exit, moving 969,595 HYPE worth approximately $79.18 million to Coinbase Prime and FalconX exchanges for trade.

The sale cleared the whale’s remaining position after weeks of distribution, ending a highly profitable trade. More importantly for HYPE, that removes a major source of potential selling pressure. As a result, that leaves the market demand to absorb the final wave of distributed tokens.

Multicoin adds to HYPE’s sell-side pressure

However, this whale exit seems less isolated, given that Multicoin Capital has been steadily decreasing their HYPE holdings. This is after they sold 75% of their peak position.

In total, Multicoin had acquired approximately 4 million HYPE in February and March. However, they have decreased that to just under 1 million over time.

The most recent four transactions deposited 404K HYPE worth roughly $34.2 million at Coinbase Prime. These deposits are important, as once an exchange becomes able to sell those deposit tokens, it will create additional supply on top of the aforementioned whale’s exit.

Meanwhile, Multicoin still retains $91 million in HYPE in their holdings. This remaining position could hit the open market.

Any further sales by Multicoin will test whether buyer demand is strong enough to absorb institutional selling pressure or force HYPE into even weaker territory.

That institutional selling now faces a new source of demand. This comes after Hashdex, a crypto asset manager, added HYPE to its NCIQ ETF. Hashdex allocated 3.4% of NCIQ to HYPE, creating roughly $14.7 million in exposure across 177,313 tokens.

However, Multicoin’s recent $21.7 million Coinbase Prime deposit already exceeded that entire position. Such an imbalance means ETF inclusion alone cannot absorb the full scale of institutional supply yet.

Moreover, the move of HYPE into the top five holdings of NCIQ will create a regular demand channel as money flows into this fund. That shift changes the setup from one-sided distribution toward a contest between new institutional demand and existing sellers.

Despite that, strong NCIQ inflows could narrow that gap. Meanwhile, continued whale deposits would keep supply dominant.

Final Summary

• Hyperliquid faces heavy distribution as whales and Multicoin realize profits and move tokens toward exchanges.
• Hashdex’s HYPE allocation adds institutional demand, but current ETF exposure remains smaller than major-holder selling.