The decentralized perpetuals exchange Hyperliquid has responded to community concerns regarding a wallet that was thought to be associated with the internal team selling significant amounts of HYPE (HYPE).
Co-founder Iliensinc stated on Hyperliquid’s Discord channel Monday that the wallet identified by the community for shorting HYPE belongs to a former employee who was let go in the first quarter of 2024.
“This individual is no longer affiliated with Hyperliquid Labs, and their actions do not represent our team’s standards or values,” Iliensinc noted, referring to the address 0x7ae4…1028.
This clarification came weeks after community member cobe.hype claimed that the address was linked to “one of the Hyperliquid team wallets” that sold approximately 4,000 HYPE tokens ($134,000) in a single day back in November.
Employees and contractors are held to “strict ethical standards”
In the Discord post, Iliensinc mentioned that Hyperliquid Labs upholds a strict trading policy to guarantee that its team operates with a “level of accountability that sets an industry benchmark.”
“All individuals associated with Hyperliquid Labs, including employees and contractors, must adhere to strict ethical standards regarding the HYPE token,” the co-founder stated.
Hyperliquid explicitly forbids employees and contractors from engaging in derivatives trading involving HYPE, which encompasses shorting or going long on the token, according to Iliensinc.
The co-founder added that trading based on “material non-public information” is “fundamentally prohibited,” and the restriction also applies to sharing such information with third parties.
HYPE labeled “best story” this cycle by Arthur Hayes, despite a 24% decline this year
Founded in late 2022, Hyperliquid has rapidly captured a significant share of the perpetual DEX market.
According to CoinGecko, the platform processed at least $653 billion in trading volume in Q2 2025, accounting for approximately 73% of the perpetual DEX market.
Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX and a key figure in popularizing perpetual contracts in crypto, recently characterized Hyperliquid as the “best story” of this cycle to date. He pointed out that HYPE debuted at “two or three bucks” in November 2024 before “surging all the way to $60.”
HYPE has shown significant volatility throughout 2025, reaching an all-time high near $60 in mid-September before facing sell-offs. At the time of publication, HYPE was trading at $25.40, reflecting a 24% decrease over the past year but a 290% increase since its launch, according to CoinGecko.
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