Hyperliquid Price Nears $100 as Whale Accumulates $36 Million in HYPE

Hyperliquid (HYPE) climbed 2.85% over the past 24 hours at press time, extending its weekly gain to 27%. The altcoin marked a new peak after its price moved above $97 on September 23.

The rally has been fueled by Hyperliquid's ongoing buyback and burn program, together with capital inflows from market participants. However, potential distribution from market makers could still cap the token's uptrend.

Token burns peak as whales build positions

Hyperliquid's burn program has continued to tighten supply. To date, more than 48.86 million HYPE, worth over $4.76 billion, have been permanently removed from circulation. Buyback-and-burn models, in which tokens are purchased on the open market and permanently destroyed, have become a common supply-reduction mechanism across the crypto industry, and on-chain burn records make the shrinking supply publicly verifiable.

Whales have also been positioning. An unidentified whale purchased another 373,730 HYPE valued at $36 million, bringing its total holdings to roughly 4.7 million tokens worth $400 million within a single month. Because large wallets are traceable on-chain, accumulation at this scale is a widely followed data point for tracking where major capital is positioned.

Hyperliquid Strategies has shown no signs of slowing down either, having accumulated 33.60 million HYPE worth $3.20 billion. That holding equals 15% of the circulating supply and 3% of the total supply.

From a broader market perspective, buying activity remained strong. Open Interest (OI) — the total value of derivative positions still open — on Hyperliquid reached an all-time high of $18 billion as the price peaked, underscoring elevated engagement across the market.

Price action: correction or continuation?

HYPE has been making new highs while respecting a rising trendline support. The altcoin has bounced off this level four times, although it currently trades far from this mean position, a distance-from-mean reading that technical traders often use to assess short-term extension.

At press time, the MACD — a momentum indicator comparing moving averages to gauge trend strength — remained bullish, but the bars indicate that momentum strength is decreasing. Short liquidations which dominated the past week, have since eased in scale.

Based on the mean position, HYPE could retest the slanting support or the levels at $88, $75, or $70. At the same time, a continuation higher cannot be overlooked, given the overall strength of the crypto market.

Will Wintermute's selling cap the uptrend?

Some institutions began selling after HYPE peaked. According to Onchain Lens, Wintermute started moving its tokens heavily to major centralized exchanges (CEXs), indicating profit-taking by some institutions. Transfers of this kind attract attention because CEXs provide the deep liquidity required to offload large positions.

Meanwhile, a massive wall of shorts is defending the $100 mark, and this selling pressure could trigger a pullback.

The liquidation heatmap showed more than $2.91 million in liquidation leverage sitting at $98.48, above the current price. On the other side, more than $3.39 million was positioned at $94.66, below price. Heatmaps of this kind map where leveraged positions would be forcibly closed if price reaches those levels.

As a result, HYPE's next move hinges on how these factors combine — and the direction remains unclear, with both bullish and bearish signals in play. From here, the observable markers are whether the $100 short wall absorbs further buying, whether Wintermute's exchange transfers continue, and whether the rising trendline holds on any retest.

Recap

Hyperliquid's unidentified whale bought another $36 million, lifting its total position to $400 million, while burned HYPE tokens reached 48.86 million. The price hit a new peak even as bullish momentum declined, potentially due to profit-taking.

Based on analysis originally published by AmbCrypto.