Large holders of Hyperliquid's HYPE token moved more than $21 million in tokens onto centralized exchanges as the price pulled back from its September highs, while protocol-funded purchases continued removing HYPE from supply.

One wallet deposited 177,518 HYPE, valued at $16.08 million, into OKX and Bybit on September 28, according to on-chain tracker Onchain Lens. The transfers comprised 90,518 HYPE sent to OKX and 87,000 HYPE sent to Bybit. An exchange deposit makes the tokens available for trading but does not establish that they were subsequently sold.

A separate that Lookonchain labeled as linked to Hypersphere Ventures sold 62,869 HYPE for approximately $5.78 million, with the tracker estimating roughly $2.13 million in profit on the position. Combined, the two tracked flows involved 240,387 HYPE worth about $21.86 million.

Price Pullback Meets Heavy Derivatives Activity

HYPE traded around $90 to $91 during the September 28 session after spending much of the previous week above $90. The token recently reached a record near $95 before retreating, and its September 24 Binance spot listing expanded market access through HYPE/USDT, HYPE/USDC and HYPE/TRY pairs.

Derivatives activity remained substantially larger than spot trading. CoinGlass recorded approximately $1.24 million in HYPE futures liquidations over 24 hours, with futures volume near $1.6 billion and open interest around $3.47 billion. Open interest tracks the value of futures positions still open, so the figure reflects how much leveraged exposure is currently outstanding in the market. HYPE was trading near $91.43 in that snapshot.

The liquidations show leverage being removed, while the exchange deposits add immediately tradeable inventory. Deposits alone do not establish that every deposited token was sold, and the Hypersphere-linked transaction remains the only directly identified sale among the two large flows.

Hyperliquid Keeps Buying and Burning HYPE

The opposite flow continues through Hyperliquid's Assistance Fund, which bought and burned 10,400 HYPE worth about $956,800 during a recent 24-hour period at a volume-weighted average purchase price of $91.97. Burning permanently removes purchased tokens from supply, making each tranche of fee revenue a verifiable, on-chain contraction of the token's maximum supply.

Cumulative Assistance Fund burns had reached 48.96 million HYPE, worth approximately $4.48 billion at the tracked valuation and equal to about 4.9% of maximum supply. Hyperliquid generated $58.27 million in protocol revenue over the preceding 30 days.

Another source of HYPE purchasing is scheduled to begin funding the Assistance Fund within days. Hyperliquid's AQAv2 framework directs approximately 90% of the cost-adjusted reserve yield generated from USDC supplied on the network back to the protocol. Circle serves as technical deployer for USDC, while Coinbase is the treasury deployer.

Reserve yield began accruing on August 26, with Hyperliquid's official announcement setting October 3 for the first payment into the Assistance Fund. Revenue then accrues in 30-day intervals and is automatically transferred eight days after each interval ends, adding USDC reserve income to the trading-fee revenue already used for recurring HYPE purchases. Once that first payment lands, the fund's published purchase totals will offer a scheduled, on-chain way to track how reserve-yield income adds to the existing buy-and-burn program.