Two Whales Sold $109 Million of Hyperliquid After ICE Softened Its Perps Post. Is the HYPE Rally Over?

Two major investors—often called “whales”—sold 1.2 million Hyperliquid (CRYPTO: HYPE) tokens, worth $109 million. This selling occurred just after the Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE | ICE Price Prediction), which operates the New York Stock Exchange, softened its statements regarding Hyperliquid’s perpetual futures. This raises the question of whether the HYPE rally is over. Whales are investors with enough holdings to influence market prices.

HYPE is trading at $88, down 2.6% over the past 24 hours. Despite this drop, the token has gained 15.5% this week, while Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) have fallen over the same period. Over the past 30 days, HYPE’s value has changed only slightly, up 0.4%, meaning most of this week’s gains merely recovered what the token lost earlier in October.

HYPE is priced 10.2% below its all-time high of $98 reached on September 23, and it ranks 11th in market value, just below Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC). The sell-off by two large holders indicates strategic profit-taking rather than a reaction to new information.

Two Whales Cashed Out After ICE Rewrote Its Hyperliquid Post

According to blockchain tracker Lookonchain, a wallet identified as 0x2685 sold 912,383 HYPE tokens for $82 million, pocketing around $10 million in profits from a purchase made about a month earlier. Another wallet, 0x648F, sold 296,705 HYPE for $27 million, realizing $16.5 million in profit on a position opened 11 months earlier.

Both wallets bought before ICE announced its Hyperliquid plan on October 29, suggesting that these investors were not reacting to new news but instead capitalizing on gains from the market rally.

Journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that ICE removed its original post and replaced it with a new one emphasizing regulatory warnings, after the deletion briefly caused concern on X. The revised message states, “ICE and Trade[XYZ] plan to bring Hyperliquid-based perps to the U.S. Subject to regulatory approvals.”

Perpetual futures, or “perps,” are contracts that allow traders to speculate on prices without an expiration date, often using borrowed funds. If approved, this plan could give retail traders access to these products through U.S.-regulated brokers, known as futures commission merchants, who handle customer funds for futures trading. However, this access hinges on getting regulatory approval for KYC-compliant trading on Hyperliquid, with KYC meaning the identity checks required by regulated brokers.

The phrase “subject to regulatory approvals” means trading won’t start until U.S. regulators approve it, and futures trading falls under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which controls the timing of these approvals. Therefore, the products that contributed to the October 29 price jump could still be several months away from launch.

HYPE Holds Above Its Averages but Fell While Bitcoin Rose

After the drop, HYPE still trades above its key moving averages, at $81 (20-day), $85 (50-day), and $66 (200-day). Moving averages represent the average closing prices over specific timeframes, indicating that short-, medium-, and long-term price trends are still leaning upward. HYPE reached a 30-day high of $94 on October 5 before pulling back.

Over the past week, Bitcoin fell 3.6%, and Ethereum fell 3.5%, while HYPE rose 15.5%. Over the past 24 hours, the trend reversed as Bitcoin rose 1.4% and Ethereum gained 1.0%, while HYPE fell 2.6%.

Bitcoin and Ethereum’s weekly losses followed the $6.3 billion Binance hack that began on October 29, which hit them hardest because big centralized exchanges hold most of those coins. In contrast, HYPE had a unique catalyst linked to the ICE announcement.

A large sale fills against standing buy orders, and each fill pushes the price lower until new buyers step in to absorb the excess supply. Therefore, HYPE’s price drop needs a clear explanation, and the $109 million in whale selling is the most obvious factor. Funds were also absent, since U.S. HYPE exchange-traded funds recorded no inflows on October 30.

Can Hyperliquid’s Buybacks Outpace the Whales?

Hyperliquid’s buybacks are unlikely to match the scale of whale selling in a single session, as reflected in HYPE’s price movement. Hyperliquid allocates its trading fees into an Assistance Fund, which converts those fees into HYPE via market purchases. A buyback occurs when a protocol uses its earnings to buy back its token from the market, but this fund can only spend what it collects from trader fees.

If buyback purchases had kept pace with the $109 million in whale selling, HYPE likely wouldn’t have declined 2.6% while Bitcoin gained. This rally also depends on unresolved factors, particularly the lack of regulatory approval for ICE’s plan, which restricts U.S. retail traders from accessing it through brokers, and the absence of new fees that might support future buybacks.

Additionally, part of the October 29 price jump could be attributed to short sellers—traders who profit when prices fall—getting liquidated, which occurs when an exchange automatically closes their positions after losses eat through their collateral.

Is the HYPE Rally Over After the Whale Sales?

The HYPE rally is not over yet, because HYPE still trades above all three averages and keeps a 15.5% weekly gain, but the whales sold into a market where buybacks and funds did not absorb the supply.

A daily close below the 50-day average of $85 would mark the ICE rally as over and suggest the whales timed their exit well. A close back above the $94 October high would show new buyers took up the 1.2 million HYPE before regulators have ruled, so is the HYPE rally over?

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