Key Takeaways
- Hyperliquid is the new in-house token from the Hyperliquid DEX, used for governance, transaction fees, and staking;
- Hyperliquid’s value has grown sevenfold since it was launched through the Hyperliquid token airdrop on November 29, 2024;
- If you decide that Hyperliquid is a worthy investment, the best places to buy it are KuCoin and the Hyperliquid DEX.
If there's one thing that stays constant in the world of crypto, it's that there's always a new kid on the block. Hyperliquid, the governance token from the new eponymous cutting-edge DEX, has caused a tsunami upon its release. Now, if you're wondering how to buy Hyperliquid - you've come to the right place.
If you don't know what it is, it's a new custom Layer 1 blockchain powering a crypto exchange of the same name that claims to blend the benefits of a centralized and decentralized exchange. On November 29th, it took the crypto community by storm with the launch of the $HYPE token through what’s now credited as one of the biggest and most successful airdrops in history.
As of the moment of writing, despite the token's viral success, it's not listed on most of the top exchanges, including Bybit, Binance, and Kraken, yet - so where can you get your hands on this rising start while it's still relatively under the radar?
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Table of Contents
- 1. How to Buy Hyperliquid on KuCoin?
- 1.1. Buy $USDT Tokens
- 1.2. Buy $HYPE With Spot Trading
- 2. How to Buy $HYPE on Hyperliquid DEX?
- 2.1. Create a Hyperliquid Account
- 2.2. Transfer $USDC to Your Account
- 2.3. Buy $HYPE With Spot Trading
- 3. What is Hyperliquid?
- 4. Hyperliquid Token Airdrop
- 5. $HYPE Trends and Predictions
- 6. Is Hyperliquid a Good Investment?
- 7. Conclusions
How to Buy Hyperliquid on KuCoin?
Luckily, there’s one major centralized exchange that’s already stepped up to cater to this rising demand. On December 7th, KuCoin added the new HYPE/USDT trading pair for spot trading (including a few of their top trading bots like Spot Grid, Infinity Grid, and DCA). This pair is now available for margin trading with up to 3x leverage, too.
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Buy $USDT Tokens
The first step in the process of how to buy Hyperliquid on KuCoin is to purchase some $USDT. Here’s how to do it using KuCoin's direct crypto purchase option:
Step 1: Log in to your KuCoin account. Go to the official KuCoin website and click “Login” in the top right corner.
Step 2: Go to the Fast Trade page. Click “Buy Crypto” on the top menu bar to access the instant crypto buying option.
Step 3: Select your assets. If you want to buy $HYPE with fiat, select $USD in the “I want to spend” section (the minimum amount you’ll have to spend is $10), then pick $USDT from the list in the section below.
Step 4: Select the payment method. You can choose between a credit/debit card, Apply Pay, or one of the third-party payment options.
Step 5: Complete the transaction. Click “Buy USDT”, then confirm your transaction.
Alternatively, you could buy $USDT on KuCoin’s built-in P2P marketplace:
Step 1: Go to P2P trading. Hover on “Buy Crypto” on the top menu bar and click “P2P Trading”.
Step 2: Filter the P2P options. Select $USDT, then enter the amount you wish to buy, and choose your preferred payment method. You can sort by price, orders, or completion date.
Step 3: Take your pick. Find your preferred seller and click “Buy” on the right side.
Apart from these two methods, you have the option to buy $USDT using a third-party payment:
Step 1: Navigate to the Third-party option. Hover on “Buy Crypto” and click ”Third-party” at the bottom.
Step 2: Select the tokens. Find $USDT on the “Buy” list and select your preferred fiat currency on the “Spend” list.
Step 3: Choose your payment method and channel.
Step 4: Check the “I have read and agree to the disclaimer” box and confirm your order.
That’s it! Now that you hold some $USDT tokens in your account, you can start trading them for $HYPE.
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- Secure and reliable
- Low fees
- A good amount of fiat currencies accepted
- Reputable exchange
- Multiple fiat currencies are accepted
- Relatively low trading fees
- Fiat currencies - accepted
- Simple to use
- Accepts only the most trustworthy cryptocurrencies
- A leading cryptocurrency exchange platform
- Best for beginner investors
- Accepts fiat currencies
- Fully reserved and transparent
- Multiple tradable asset classes
- Early new token support
- 265 supports cryptocurrencies
- Secure & transparent
- Fully reserved
Buy $HYPE With Spot Trading
Let’s get back to our topic at hand, then! The final part of the process of how to buy Hyperliquid is trading your $USDT tokens on KuCoin’s trading platform.
The simplest and easiest option for beginners is spot trading. Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Go to spot trading. Access KuCoin’s spot trading platform. Hover over “Trade” on the top menu bar and click” “Spot Trading”.
Step 2: Find $HYPE. Type in “Hyperliquid” in the search bar at the top, then select it from the available options on the list.
Step 3: Choose your order type. You can pick between Limit and Market orders, as well as several other advanced order types.
Step 4: Fill in the order details. Type in the amount of $USDT you want to trade.
Step 5: Complete the transaction. Click “Buy HYPE”, then confirm the transaction.
If you go to your Trading Account and type in “HYPE” in the search bar, you’ll now be able to see how many Hyperliquid tokens you hold.
How to Buy $HYPE on Hyperliquid DEX?
It goes without saying that if you already have a KuCoin account, this would be the most convenient option for you. On the other hand, if you don’t – there’s no reason not to learn how to buy Hypeliquid straight from their own official exchange!
The Hyperliquid DEX is quite unique in that it combines the characteristics of both centralized and decentralized exchanges. This comes with some added convenience and flexibility: for example, you can choose between using this exchange without signing up (simply by connecting a third-party non-custodial wallet) or creating a Hyperliquid account to use their own built-in wallet.
In case you’d prefer to use it as a centralized exchange, I’ll show you the whole process of how to buy Hyperliquid from scratch, starting with the registration.
Create a Hyperliquid Account
Getting started with the Hyperliquid crypto exchange is quite simple – it has no KYC, which means there’s nothing standing between you and crypto trading from the moment you sign up!
Here’s how to create an account:
Step 1: Go to the trading platform. Go to the official Hyperliquid website and click “Launch App” in the top right corner.
Step 2: Confirm your consent. Read the disclaimer in the pop-up window and click “Continue”.
Step 3: Connect your wallet or create a new one. Click “Connect” in the top right corner and select your crypto wallet from the list. If your wallet isn’t there or if you prefer to use Hyperliquid’s custodial wallet, click “Log in with Email”.
Step 4: Provide your email. If you picked the latter option, type in your email address and click “Submit”.
Step 5: Enter the confirmation code. Check your email and type in the confirmation code you received.
Step 6: Accept the terms and conditions. Check the following boxes and click “Accept”.
Congratulations! You now have a Hyperliquid account.
Transfer $USDC to Your Account
After setting up your account or your wallet, the next thing you need to do is deposit some $USDC tokens so that you can use them to buy $HYPE.
Here’s what the process looks like:
Step 1: Click on “Deposit” in the top right corner.
Step 2: Deposit $USDC. Go to your crypto wallet (make sure it’s compatible with the Arbitrum network) and transfer $USDC to your Hyperliquid wallet address.
Alternatively, if you’ve connected a third-party wallet, you can simply enable Arbitrum and transfer your $USDC tokens directly to your Hyperliquid account.
Step 3: Send $USDC to your Trading account. By default, the deposited tokens appear in your Perpetuals account. Click “Transfer to Spot” to send them to your Trading account so that you can use them for spot trading, then click "Confirm".
That's it!
Did you know?
Subscribe - We publish new crypto explainer videos every week!
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- Secure and reliable
- Low fees
- A good amount of fiat currencies accepted
- Reputable exchange
- Multiple fiat currencies are accepted
- Relatively low trading fees
- Fiat currencies - accepted
- Simple to use
- Accepts only the most trustworthy cryptocurrencies
- A leading cryptocurrency exchange platform
- Best for beginner investors
- Accepts fiat currencies
- Fully reserved and transparent
- Multiple tradable asset classes
- Early new token support
- 265 supports cryptocurrencies
- Secure & transparent
- Fully reserved
Buy $HYPE With Spot Trading
Now that you’re all set up and ready to go, it’s time to place your first order! Here’s how to trade your $USDC tokens for $HYPE:
Step 1: Type in your order details. On the right-side panel, select the amount of $USDC you want to trade for $HYPE or adjust the slider to indicate the percent of your total $USDC holdings you wish to trade.
Step 2: Place your order. Review the transaction details and click “Place Order”.
Step 3: Confirm the transaction. Click “Buy”. If you don’t want to see this pop-up in the future, check “Don’t show this again”.
Here you go!
What is Hyperliquid?
Now that you know how to buy Hyperliquid, let's explore what it is in more depth. The first thing you need to know is that there are three interconnected yet separate products that go by the name "Hyperliquid".
It is the brand name encompassing the whole ecosystem built under the new custom Layer 1 blockchain of the same name. It includes the Hyperliquid DEX and its governance token, $HYPE.
There are plenty of good reasons for a crypto exchange to introduce an in-house cryptocurrency - increased liquidity, decentralized decision-making, opportunities for rewards and other incentives for user participation, just to name a few. Hyperliquid DEX was no exception here: the token launch was meant to tie the whole ecosystem together and get things going.
To that end, the founders integrated $HYPE into the Hyperliquid crypto exchange with a number of attractive functionalities, such as generous staking rewards of up to 55% APY and the option to use $HYPE for transaction fees or for creating dApps. The token uses a custom proof-of-stake consensus mechanism called HyperBFT that can process multiple transactions in a block simultaneously, which brings massive speed improvements.
$HYPE has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. It also comes with a burn mechanism to control inflation and a strict vesting schedule that helps maintain a balance between liquidity and selling pressure – definitely a good sign if you’re looking into how to buy Hyperliquid in a sustainable way!
Here’s what the $HYPE’s distribution looks like:
- Circulating Supply: 333.92 million;
- Hyperliquid Airdrop event: 31%;
- Future Emissions & Rewards: 38.888%;
- Core Contributors: 23.8%;
- Hyper Foundation Budget: 6%;
- Community Grants: 0.3%.
As you can see, that’s a surprisingly high percentage of tokens allocated to the community, which is part of why $HYPE has been so successful.
Hyperliquid Token Airdrop
What if, instead of having to find out how to buy Hyperliquid, you could simply get it for free? On November 29th, over 90 thousand lucky users got a taste of what this feels like. The Hyperliquid token launch was accompanied by an airdrop genesis event.
Crypto airdrops have always had a varying success rate.[1] While some airdrops are nothing to write home about, others end up dominating the crypto news headlines for days on end. The Hyperliquid token airdrop was definitely one of the latter: with a total of ~270 million distributed tokens and an average of 2881.73 $HYPE drop per user, it’s one of the largest airdrop campaigns in the history of crypto.
One of the factors that spelled success for this new innovative token was the lack of venture capitalist funding. Hyperliquid famously refused any VC capital, opting for healthy organic growth instead. There’s a popular opinion that a lot of crypto airdrops have failed because of an overly high portion of tokens (sometimes even up to 20%) being allocated to VC, while community airdrops might get as low as 5%.
Needless to say, this wasn’t the case with Hyperliquid: the airdrop consisted of a whopping 31% of the token’s total supply, which amounted to ~270 million $HYPE, with another 38.8% assigned to future rewards. Private investors were completely out of the picture.
Another wise choice the founders made in their quest how to get Hyperliquid airdrop to knock it out of the park was to prioritize quality over quantity. With only 94.9 thousand participants, this airdrop didn’t exactly break the records when it comes to sheer scale – after all, it’s not unheard of for airdrops of major crypto projects to reach as many as 1 million users.
As it turned out, this was exactly the intention: the limited breadth meant a much heftier share for every recipient. The average Hyperliquid airdrop claim was 2881.73 $HYPE, which was worth over $11 thousand at the time of the airdrop!
The main Hyperliquid token airdrop eligibility criteria were active participation on the DEX – throughout the six-month window before the November 11 registration deadline, users were awarded points based on their trading volume and other activities, such as staking. The anticipation was running so high that some users even resorted to selling their points for 1$ on OTC trading desks!
The point distribution started on May 29th. Between October 14th and November 11th, the only thing participants had to do to complete the Hyperliquid airdrop claiming process was connect their wallets and wait for their bounty to drop in.
One of the most remarkable things about the Hyperliquid token airdrop was the way the prices kept growing afterward. With most other airdrops, the token’s value often falls off right after the event concludes – too many users can’t resist selling their gains.[2]
What happened with Hyperliquid was, in fact, the exact opposite: the starting price of $3.90 per token doubled just 12 hours after the airdrop and hasn’t stopped growing since, with the number of searches asking, “How to buy Hyperliquid?” spiraling out of control. At launch, the token airdrop value was already at $1.2 billion combined, and soon enough, it skyrocketed to nearly $3 billion!
With such a blazing debut and a high share of the total supply reserved for similar reward incentives, it’s very likely that we’ll see a repeat performance at some point. If you’ve missed your window of opportunity this time round and are wondering how to get Hyperliquid airdrop to manifest once more – you’re probably not alone! Don’t get your hopes too high just yet, but keep tuned in for more news, just in case.
$HYPE Trends and Predictions
The most pressing question for a lot of people isn’t “How to buy Hyperliquid?” or “Where to buy Hyperliquid?”, but rather “when”. So, let’s take a look at this token’s price journey so far and where it’s headed.
What can I say – $HYPE certainly lived up to its name! Within 48 hours of the Hyperliquid token launch, its price surged by 149.74%, reaching $9.74 per token. The trading volume surpassed $165 million in the very first hour.
And that was just the beginning. $HYPE saw 103.7% growth in 7 days after the Hyperliquid airdrop claims started rolling in and almost 200% in two weeks. The price difference between the all-time low of $3.81 and the all-time high of $28.97 is over 600%.
The thing about this jump is that it may not seem all that impressive at first glance. Meme coin fans are used to seeing their favorite assets explode by several times as much – just look at the $CHILLGUY token, which went up 6000% in less than a week.
When it comes to “regular” cryptocurrencies, however, such massive fluctuations aren’t as common. Despite still being fresh off the anvil, Hyperliquid’s chart trajectory already resembles that of much more established coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum. At the moment of writing, $HYPE’s growth has been surprisingly linear and uniform.
The market cap followed a similar pattern: from starting at ~$1.2 billion, it climbed all the way up to ~$8.6 billion in less than three weeks.
As of today, Hyperliquid is trading at $22.45. Some analysts speculate that if it manages to hit the next closest resistance point of 30%, it will become the new critical support zone for future corrections, and if the momentum of this bullish trend can be sustained, there won’t be much in the way of it reaching $40 or even higher at some point.
Needless to say, if you’re considering how to buy Hyperliquid, you better get to it soon while it’s still in the early stages of an explosion!
Is Hyperliquid a Good Investment?
Now that you know the history behind this token, it’s time for the million-dollar question: is $HYPE worth the hype?
The number one question to answer right now is – what do you intend to use the token for? Are you mainly interested in it as a crypto asset, or are you looking to explore the Hyperliquid DEX and other opportunities that might come from this new L1 chain in the future?
When it comes to market performance, Hyperliquid is already blowing many competitors out of the water. Unlike most new tokens, it managed to reach a double-digit price point in an incredibly short timespan and at a steady rate, to boot, with no extreme fluctuations in either direction.
What’s more, as stated on its website, Hyperliquid isn’t beholden to any investors or paid marketers – its growth is entirely organic, which makes it look all the more impressive and bodes well for its sustainability.
As for the broader benefits, $HYPE certainly looks promising from a technological standpoint, too. Hyperliquid L1 is a new, cutting-edge network that has its own native DEX with an integrated governance token. This seamless three-way integration facilitated a much smoother trading experience with benefits like zero gas fees, a fully transparent on-chain order book, and one-click trading with no wallet approvals.
Hyperliquid isn’t just a DEX, though – the upcoming launch of a custom HyperEVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) will open up opportunities for developers to build their own dApps on the Hyperliquid chain, which would also increase the utility and demand for $HYPE tokens – before long, there will be many more traders asking how to buy Hyperliquid.
At the moment of writing, the roadmap looks a bit bare-bones, but it’s still clear that the developers are already thinking ahead. They’re planning to add more trading pairs to the Hyperliquid DEX in the first quarter of 2025 and then work on cross-chain integration. Some of the long-term plans include seeking partnerships with global institutions starting in 2026 and launching mass adoption initiatives.
Let’s not get too carried away with these rosy predictions, though – from a purely pragmatic perspective, the Hyperliquid ecosystem is still a brand-new product, and the $HYPE token's performance and future potential are inseparably tied to the chain itself. If the Hyperliquid DEX doesn’t take off, chances are that it will fizzle out before long, too.
All in all, it’s hard to tell for sure whether Hyperliquid is a good investment since the crypto space is unpredictable. If you decide to take the plunge anyway and buy Hyperliquid, here’s some advice to keep you afloat:
- Start small: This is standard 101-level advice for newbie traders; even if you're a crypto veteran, though, it’s better to start with small sums and work your way up to avoid massive losses.
- Keep tracking the market data: When it comes to newly released tokens, the situation might change drastically from one minute to the next. Stay proactive and keep an eye on the charts.
- Follow the news: The developers’ communication regarding the roadmap and future plans can play a huge role in swaying the market sentiment. Follow Hyperliquid’s social media channels to stay up to date with the latest announcements.
- Explore different avenues: Even if $HYPE isn’t available on a whole lot of other exchanges yet, check the prices and trading options on different exchanges - don't just stick to your usual platform of choice.
While following this advice to the letter won’t protect you from unforeseen market shifts, it could at least help you keep your expectations in check.
Conclusions
$HYPE is the new governance token from the innovative Hyperliquid DEX that’s part of the eponymous blockchain ecosystem. It made waves in the crypto community with the airdrop event that distributed over 270 million tokens to ~94 thousand users. Many of those who’d missed it are now looking for ways how to buy Hyperliquid.
It’s probably only a question of time until $HYPE is available on most of the major exchanges, such as Bybit, Binance, and Kraken – but, until then, the best ways to get your hand on this promising new asset is either on KuCoin or the Hyperliquid DEX. Both platforms offer at least one $HYPE trading pair on their spot trading.
The question still remains, though – is Hyperliquid really a sound investment at this early stage, or should you give it some more time to gain a stronger foothold? Predicting a new cryptocurrency’s long-term prospects (or lack thereof) is never a hard science, so you’ll have to make your own judgments here. All I can say is - if being an early adopter of potential trailblazers is your jam, Hyperliquid is certainly one of the more intriguing contenders to keep an eye on.
The content published on this website is not aimed to give any kind of financial, investment, trading, or any other form of advice. BitDegree.org does not endorse or suggest you to buy, sell or hold any kind of cryptocurrency. Before making financial investment decisions, do consult your financial advisor.
Scientific References
1. Allen, D. W., Berg, C. and Lane, A. M.: 'Why airdrop cryptocurrency tokens?';
2. Messias, J., Yaish, A. and Livshits, B.: 'Airdrops: Giving Money Away Is Harder Than It Seems'.