Jeffrey Huang, the Taiwanese music celebrity and prominent digital asset investor known as “Machi Big Brother,” has divested all his holdings in Hyperliquid, incurring a multimillion-dollar loss amid rising apprehensions regarding the impending vesting schedule of the token.
The celebrity and avid collector of Bored Ape Yacht Club sold $25.8 million worth of Hyperliquid (HYPE) tokens, realizing a total loss of $4.45 million after several weeks of ownership, as indicated by blockchain data shared by pseudonymous analyst MLM in a Tuesday X post.
The account has also lost more than $19 million in unrealized profits over the last week.
Despite these substantial losses, he retained an Ether (ETH) long position valued at over $117 million and a $28.4 million Pump.fun (PUMP) position, according to blockchain data from Hypurrscan.
This sale occurred following a whale withdrawal of $122 million in HYPE tokens on Monday, signaling profit-taking and raising concerns about the token’s ability to handle incoming supply pressure.
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Analysts caution about $11.9 billion token unlocks
On Monday, Arthur Hayes’ family office fund, Maelstrom, warned about the upcoming HYPE token unlocks, which will be the token’s “first true test” on Nov. 29 when the 24-month vesting schedule commences.
The vesting schedule will allocate $11.9 billion worth of HYPE tokens to team members, of which current buybacks would only absorb about 17% of that monthly supply, leaving a potential $410 million surplus, according to Maelstrom researcher Lukas Ruppert.
This research surfaced shortly after Hayes sold all his HYPE tokens, reportedly to finance a deposit for a new Ferrari, as reported by Cointelegraph earlier on Monday.
Market share declines as competitors emerge
Hyperliquid’s perpetual futures market share has seen a significant drop ahead of the unlocks, accounting for just 33% of decentralized exchange (DEX) market share on Tuesday, down from 65% in mid-July, as per Dune’s data.
The decline in Hyperliquid’s market share is part of a “broader competitive cycle” indicating the ongoing evolution of DEXs, as noted by Sarah Song, head of business development at BNB Chain:
“As the sector evolves, new models could emerge that meaningfully reshape user behavior and platform positioning.”
The future DEX landscape will largely hinge on how protocols address “foundational challenges” such as sustainable liquidity provisions and diverse collateral types, product design, and the performance of underlying blockchains, as cost efficiency and latency remain “critical constraints” for mainstream adoption, Song added.
Related: Trump-backed World Liberty votes for token buybacks and burns
During the same two months, Aster’s market share increased from 1.3% to 20%, while Lighter’s grew from 12.8% to 17.1%.
On Thursday, a decentralized perpetuals exchange linked to Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, Aster, briefly surpassed $2 billion in total value locked, following the launch of the project’s Aster (ASTER) token, as reported by Cointelegraph.
The HYPE token reached a new all-time high of $59.29 on Thursday, just hours after Zhao announced the ASTER. The HYPE token traded at $48.20 at the time of writing, reflecting a decline of about 9% on the weekly chart, based on Cointelegraph data.
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