HYPE holds near $80 as whale stakes $159M and Kraken wraps token

A whale wallet identified as 0x8e48 has staked its entire $159 million HYPE position after accumulating the tokens over eight months, while Kraken began offering kHYPE, a wrapped version of the token, on its Ink network.

The staking move was flagged by on-chain tracker Lookonchain, which monitors large wallet flows. Hyperliquid's native staking locks HYPE to secure the network rather than leaving it available on exchanges, so the full stake removes the block from tradable float.

HYPE traded at $80.33 as of Sept. 10, down 6.61% over 24 hours, according to CryptoRank market data. The token has spent recent sessions inside a band with resistance near $88.20 and support around $81.38, with the 50-day exponential moving average at $83.20 and the 200-day at $72.85. A separate whale, 0x6750, bought 174,826 HYPE for $15.01 million and staked the whole position within eight hours of the purchase.

Kraken's kHYPE went live Sept. 8 as an ERC-20 token backed one-to-one by HYPE held in custody at Kraken Financial, the exchange's Wyoming-chartered Special Purpose Depository Institution. Kraken published the kHYPE contract address on Ink and a separate HYPE custody address so users can compare wrapped supply against reserves. The token is available only on Ink at launch, with expansion to other networks planned but unscheduled.

The two developments pull in the same direction on supply. Staking removes HYPE from immediate circulation, and kHYPE gives holders a way to keep exposure while deploying the asset into DeFi applications on Ink instead of selling. Kraken describes kHYPE as a utility and interoperability product rather than a yield instrument, and redemption is subject to availability and applicable terms. Deposits at Kraken Financial are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

What the float math looks like

Hyperliquid's staking mechanism and the kHYPE wrapper serve different purposes. Native staking locks the asset to participate in network security; kHYPE moves a representation of the asset onto an Ethereum layer-2 where it can interact with lending, trading, and liquidity protocols. Both reduce the supply sitting idle on order books, but only staking removes tokens from circulation outright.

The concentration cuts both ways. A single wallet holding $159 million in staked HYPE is a large, slow-moving position while it stays locked, and a large overhang if it ever unstakes. Kraken's custody arrangement adds a second dependency: kHYPE holders take on wrapper and smart-contract risk that does not apply to HYPE held on its native network. One report noted the custody explorer returned no readable balances in evidence collected at the time, and outstanding kHYPE supply was not independently retrieved, so the published links provide a location for inspection rather than a completed reserve reconciliation.

The competitive read matters for Hyperliquid's position among perpetual futures venues. A major exchange building a wrapped product around a rival protocol's token is an unusual endorsement, and it gives HYPE holders a route into DeFi on Ink without leaving Kraken's custody perimeter. Kraken has also raised ETH/USD spot-margin leverage to 20x for eligible accounts in selected markets and added time-weighted average price orders on Kraken Pro, part of a broader push to keep active traders on the platform.

For traders, the near-term question is whether the supply reduction is enough to hold HYPE above the $81.38 support level. A break below that opens the 200-day average at $72.85; a push through $88.20 would put the token back at the top of its recent range. The next concrete checkpoint is whether Kraken names additional networks for kHYPE and whether the custody addresses show balances matching minted supply.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.