Key Notes
- HYPE slides 6%, extending a 27% weekly decline.
- James Wynn has taken a short position on HYPE and a long position on rival ASTER.
- Looming token unlocks have raised price drop concerns.
Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE HYPE $42.09 24h volatility: 6.9% Market cap: $11.41 B Vol. 24h: $901.48 M continues to sink, falling by another 6% on Sept. 25. The cryptocurrency has marked a 27% loss over the past week, but prominent trader James Wynn believes the pain is far from over.
In a recent post on X, Wynn said that while HYPE may not disappear entirely, it will experience a “slow and painful” drop.
Furthermore, CZ will not stop until $ASTER is #1.
He loves competition, he loves building and he is obsessed with winning.
Hype will exist, but it will have a slow and painful death in my opinion.
With Aster already doing more volume than HL. And with Aster being the better… https://t.co/VhncTh28od
— James Wynn (@JamesWynnReal) September 24, 2025
The troubles for HYPE began shortly after the launch of rival decentralized exchange Aster on Sept. 17. Market attention quickly shifted to the newcomer, helped by early praise from Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
The support fueled strong momentum for the new crypto token, pulling liquidity and users away from HYPE.
ASTER’s Rapid Rise
While ASTER processed roughly $20.8 billion in trading volume, HYPE trading volume on the same day was $9.7 billion. With this activity, ASTER generated around $9.2 million in daily revenue compared with HYPE’s $2.7 million.
Aster’s total value locked has also exploded, climbing from under $400 million at launch to over $2 billion within a week. Wynn described ASTER as “a better product,” adding that he has taken a long position on ASTER and a short position on HYPE.
Wynn is not alone. Earlier this week, high-profile investor Jeffrey “Machi Big Brother” Huang sold about $25.8 million worth of tokens at a loss of $4.45 million.
Once sitting on more than $42 million in profits from HYPE trades earlier this year, Huang saw his gains shrink after the sudden price fall.
Will @machibigbrother become the next @JamesWynnReal ?
Machi started trading on #Hyperliquid in May and grew his profits from zero to over $42.6M in 4 months.
But in just 6 days, ~$30M of that profit has vanished, bringing his total profits down from $42.6M to $11.6M.… pic.twitter.com/Hs0eTnUZYm
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 25, 2025
Token Unlock Fears Intensify
Traders fear a looming $11.9 billion HYPE token unlock scheduled to begin on Nov. 29. Roughly 237.8 million HYPE tokens will vest over 24 months, with only about 17% of the monthly issuance likely to be absorbed by current buyback programs.
Analysts warn that this could result in a surplus of around $410 million in new tokens entering the market each month, which would weigh heavily on prices. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes also exited his HYPE holdings earlier in September, citing the same unlock concerns.
At the time of writing, HYPE was trading near $42.70, down almost 29% from its all-time high of $59.39 reached just a week ago.
