Whale stakes HYPE on Hyperliquid, including 557,902 tokens from FalconX

Hyperliquid's HYPE token is seeing heavy whale activity on both sides of the staking ledger, adding to uncertainty over whether large holders are positioning for sales or simply reshuffling exposure. A whale staked 557,902 HYPE worth about $32.87 million on Hyperliquid after receiving the tokens from FalconX, while Lookonchain also reported a separate 2.93 million HYPE stake worth about $172 million that was funded through 19 wallets believed to belong to the same entity. The tracker said that position was accumulated about nine months ago at an average price of $44 per token, leaving it with an unrealized profit of roughly $44.5 million at current prices. Another 1.49 million HYPE worth about $88.2 million was later staked across eight wallets that on-chain data shows acquired the tokens through Bybit around nine months ago. At the same time, OnChain Lens reported that a single entity unstaked 2.92 million HYPE worth about $170.1 million from two wallets after roughly eight months, leaving both wallets with no HYPE in the staking contract. The move fueled speculation that major holders could be preparing to sell, though Hyperliquid community member Grenderen.hl said the activity may instead reflect ETF seeding because custodians need liquid tokens for ETF operations and staked HYPE cannot be used that way. He pointed to a similar April event, when about $88 million of HYPE was unstaked on the same day Grayscale updated a filing and changed custody to Anchorage. Crypto commentator Jussy estimated that about $400 million worth of HYPE is scheduled to leave staking over the next seven days, with more than 5 million HYPE worth roughly $320 million linked to wallets associated with Multicoin, Paradigm and Selini Capital. Multicoin has said its unstaking is part of a wallet rotation rather than a sale, while Paradigm and Selini Capital have not made similar statements. Jussy said HYPE previously fell 15% after unstaking announcements spooked the market, when about 3.2 million HYPE entered the unstaking queue, including roughly 2 million tied to Multicoin's wallet rotation. He added that if the remaining tokens are sold gradually, Hyperliquid's reported $1.4 million in daily buybacks could absorb part of the pressure. CoinMarketCap data showed HYPE at $57.65, down 1.44% over 24 hours, about 9% lower over the past month and roughly 25% below its all-time high of $76 reached about a month ago.