Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Hyperliquid executed a major airdrop on November 29, distributing 310 million HYPE tokens to community members. The initial value of the HYPE token was set at $3.90, resulting in a total distribution worth approximately $1.2 billion. Following the airdrop, the token's price increased by 63% within 12 hours, reaching $6.16, with its market capitalization approaching $2 billion. The HYPE token is integral to Hyperliquid's layer-1 blockchain, operating on a proof-of-stake mechanism and capable of processing up to 200,000 transactions per second. Within its tokenomics, 31% of HYPE tokens were allocated for the airdrop, with future rewards and emissions making up the remainder. Notably, Hyperliquid's airdrop ranks among the largest in DeFi history, with benchmarks like Uniswap's 2020 airdrop and Arbitrum's distribution in 2023 providing context. Airdrops are primarily used to incentivize early adopters and promote new cryptocurrencies.

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