$40M in HYPE unstaked – Will this fuel Hyperliquid’s Q3 rally?

Key Takeaways

• HYPE ripped +204% in Q2. In fact, it tagged two ATHs, topping at $45.83, backed by $200B+ in trading volume. With a major upgrade around the corner, Q3 is shaping up to be HYPE’s real stress test.

Hyperliquid [HYPE] is trading as a high-beta mirror of Bitcoin [BTC]. As BTC hit $111k in late May, HYPE broke $30, then climbed to $45.83, setting two new all-time highs in under a month.

Q2 returns: +204%, driven by real traction. Hyperliquid cleared $200 billion in 30-day volume, reinforcing its position as the leading decentralized perps platform.  

But can Hyperliquid sustain that momentum into Q3? With a key protocol milestone less than a week away, its resilience is about to be tested.

Kinetiq triggers $40M HYPE rotation

Historically, Hyperliquid offered no yield on staked HYPE, keeping its utility confined to governance and protocol alignment. In essence, staking HYPE didn’t generate income.

That changes with the Kinetiq upgrade on the 15th of July. For the first time, stakers can convert HYPE into kHYPE, which unlocks real yield.

Sure, this marks a critical inflection point, evolving Hyperliquid from a utility token into a yield-bearing asset.

In fact, whales are positioning early. Three major wallets have begun unstaking nearly 1 million HYPE, worth $40 million, likely reallocating into kHYPE to capture early staking rewards.

Yet structurally, Hyperliquid is showing cracks.

As noted by AMBCrypto, the token is underperforming across key metrics. It recently broke below its ATH despite the RSI remaining well below overbought, suggesting that the pullback isn’t driven by exhaustion.

Source: TradingView (HYPE/USDT)

With $40 million in unstaked HYPE set to re-enter the system, the question is, will this influx amplify volatility in Hyperliquid’s already fragile market structure?

Liquidity rotates, not exits – Is a structural rally next?

Hyperliquid ripped over 200% in Q2, topping out at $45 before pulling back 30%, highlighting a classic round of profit-taking.

But the bounce came fast, showing there’s still plenty of buy-side strength in the market.

What’s more telling: No significant de-leveraging occurred, despite Open Interest climbing to an all-time high of $1.98 billion, reinforcing directional conviction.

Source: Coinglass

If this setup holds, the $40 million in unstaked HYPE could act as a launchpad for a fresh leg up, especially as kHYPE turns HYPE into a DeFi-integrated asset.

Therefore, with capital now becoming productive, the next move might not just be speculative. Instead, it could be systemic.