HYPE Token Spikes to $98 Before Crashing — What Happened?

The native token of the Hyperliquid platform, HYPE, experienced a wild price swing on Lighter, an Ethereum Layer-2 perpetual futures exchange. The token briefly spiked to $98 before quickly falling back to around $47, a move that left traders puzzled and the crypto community buzzing.

The dramatic surge unfolded a few hours ago when screenshots began circulating on X showing HYPE’s price shooting from $48 to $98 in minutes. The spike represented more than a 100% jump and sparked widespread speculation about possible manipulation or a glitch.

What Caused the Sudden Price Spike?

Lighter’s team later clarified the cause. In an X post, they explained that “a runaway bot jammed through the HYPE book with size, causing the price distortion.”

The exchange assured users that no liquidations occurred and that no traders suffered financial losses. To avoid confusion, Lighter even deleted the overstated wick in its price charts, calling it a user-friendly decision.

Why This Matters

While the technical issue was resolved quickly, the decision to delete the price wick ignited a fierce debate. Supporters saw it as a practical fix to prevent misleading visuals. However, many critics accused Lighter of undermining DeFi transparency.

Crypto analyst Duo Nine said the platform should have addressed its liquidity problems instead of “censoring” the data. Others argued that removing the spike was like “erasing history” and could harm trust in decentralized trading.

At the time of writing, HYPE was trading close to $47.27, which is its pre-spiking levels. The event has rekindled debate on the topic of liquidity, transparency, and data integrity in decentralized finance, reminding traders just how vulnerable even automated systems can be when bots go rogue.