Hyperlane is about to issue coin, detailed explanation of airdrop standards and HYPER Token mechanism.

With limited resources, a loyal community, and resilient contributors, Hyperlane has connected to over 140 blockchains, becoming one of the most widely covered networks in the field of interoperability.

Written by: Hyperlane

We are about to enter a new stage of expansion, and HYPER will become the native token that drives the operation of the Hyperlane network.

Over the past three years, Hyperlane has been quietly expanding.

With limited resources, a loyal community, and resilient contributors, Hyperlane has connected to over 140 Blockchains, becoming the most widely covered network in the interoperability space. Applications built on Hyperlane have achieved over 8 million cross-chain message transmissions. The transaction volume bridged through Warp Routes has surpassed $5 billion, with many becoming the only asset entry points for new chains.

Data source: Dune

This achievement stems from Hyperlane's pioneering development architecture and mission. As an open interoperability framework, Hyperlane empowers anyone to expand, use, contribute to, and customize the network. We embrace a truly permissionless platform—developers can easily and securely build cross-chain applications and token bridges here.

HYPER Token Mechanism Detailed Explanation

Core Operating Principle

Hyperlane is designed as a completely open and permissionless system, allowing any developer to deploy at any time to achieve interoperability of their chains, assets, or applications. The HYPER token serves as the core coordination mechanism, aimed at incentivizing multiple participants in the open ecosystem to engage in secure behaviors that align with collective interests.

HYPER token features include:

1. Usage-based rewards (Expansion Rewards): For each cross-chain message sent within the protocol, the system will distribute rewards to participants to incentivize network usage and ecosystem expansion.
2. Staking rewards: Validators are rewarded for securely completing cross-chain message passing; at the same time, stakers who provide economic security for the default Inter-Chain Security Module (ISM) can also receive rewards, following the staking / penalty mechanism. Stakers can choose to receive rewards in the form of liquid staking tokens (stHYPER).

For more details about the HYPER token and its operating mechanism, please refer to the official Hyperlane documentation.

Token Allocation Principles

The incentives of the HYPER token revolve around the security and reliability of the protocol, as well as the widespread adoption of Hyperlane as a community-owned open interoperability standard. The Token Generation Event (TGE) will be allocated based on the weight of the token holders' past and future contributions to network utilization and ecosystem.

Expansion Rewards

In the next four years, based on the proportion of users sending cross-chain messages through the protocol, token ownership will be allocated as rewards to users and project parties that use Hyperlane to send messages or tokens across chains.

Traceback Airdrop Reward (ExpansionDrop)

During the TGE, retrospective rewards will be distributed to early users of Hyperlane. These users confirmed through snapshot data as of February 28, 2025, 23:59:59 UTC, have cumulatively sent approximately 8.6 million messages, laying the foundation for the early development of Hyperlane.

Staking Rewards（质押奖励）

Token ownership will be allocated to the following two categories of participants:

• Validator: Responsible for verifying cross-chain messages between Hyperlane connected chains;
• Stakers: Provide economic security for the default Cross-Chain Security Module (ISM), and their staking/slashing mechanism follows the rules of the protocol. Stakers can choose to claim rewards in the form of liquid staking tokens (Staked HYPER, stHYPER).

Foundation Treasury & Strategic Launch Provision

Foundation Treasury: Used to support the long-term governance of the protocol, initial token liquidity provision, and to accelerate ecological development and the formation of the flywheel effect through flexible means (e.g., increasing Expansion Rewards).

Strategic seed funding: Part of the funds will be used to incentivize early Hyperlane users with specific interaction and message transmission types.

Core Team & Early Backers

Token ownership will be allocated to those who build and adopt the Hyperlane core infrastructure.

Expansion Rewards （扩展奖励）

The expansion rewards of Hyperlane will adopt a programmatic distribution model, distributed quarterly for four years, based on the usage proportion of application layer messages. By default, 85% of the rewards allocated to project partners will directly reach end users, while the remaining 15% will be retained by the project partner team. Project partners can adjust the ratio between the project party and end users according to their needs.

By adopting Hyperlane as a standard bridge or official bridge blockchain partner, you will receive a reward weight increase for promoting Hyperlane as the industry standard for open interoperability. Users and project partners who continuously hold the protocol token stHYPER will activate a multiplier for HYPER staking based on the holding duration each quarter (up to 1.6 times). Participants who maintain the longest uninterrupted staking since the TGE will enjoy the maximum multiplier benefits. Early users who select to receive stHYPER at the TGE through preclaims will have priority to achieve the highest multiplier.

The Hyperlane Foundation may also dynamically accelerate Expansion Rewards through treasury funds to incentivize initiatives that align with Hyperlane interests (such as adopting Hyperlane as a standard or official bridge, providing liquidity support, integrating unique features or hook development in ISM, etc.), in order to build a high-performance, highly flexible developer-friendly interoperability framework.

Staking Security and stHYPER

Users can participate in the validator security assurance of the default Interchain Security Module (ISM) by staking HYPER. The staking / slashing mechanism ensures that ISM validators only sign valid Hyperlane messages. Any slashed staking rewards will be used to compensate the affected parties.

Users participating in economic security staking through the custody agreement will receive liquid staking certificates stHYPER. The staking reward mechanisms for different chains vary in rules such as claiming and automatic compounding. For specific details, please refer to the Hyperlane official website.

Witch Mechanism

To avoid a one-size-fits-all ban on wallets, Hyperlane has developed an innovative witch weighting system. Qualified wallet addresses will be scored based on their likelihood of being identified as witch accounts, and if marked as a potential witch, a negative multiplier will be applied to their Expansion Drop rewards. Only addresses that match the publicly available Chaos Labs witch detection dataset will be completely excluded from the Expansion Drop. The reward multiplier for other addresses ranges from 0.0 to 1.0, with specific weights based on the following three determining factors:

1. 30% [0,1]: The address only receives transactions or interactions from other qualified $HYPER addresses;
2. 30% [0,0.5,1]: The total amount of transactions sent from the address during the period from January 1, 2024, to February 28, 2025 (not limited to Hyperlane transactions or interactions) is divided into three tiers: <5 transactions, 5-10,000 transactions, or >10,000 transactions;
3. 40% [0.0–1.0 continuous value]: The proportion of interactions between the address and other qualified HYPER addresses (for example: if 5% of the total transaction volume comes from other qualified HYPER addresses, the score would be 0.05, resulting in a 2% reduction in rewards under the 40% weight).

Token Allocation and Incentive Rules

The HYPER token will be distributed to all participants in two forms: locked and fully circulating, during the TGE, aimed at driving the growth of the Hyperlane ecosystem through long-term benefits. The total supply of HYPER is 1 billion tokens, which will be gradually released over 25 years; the circulating supply at TGE is 177.7 million tokens.

Traceable Airdrop Rewards (Expansion Drop)

The TGE phase will release 7.5% of the total supply as retroactive airdrop rewards, funded by the Expansion Rewards pool and the Hyperlane Foundation strategic launch reserve. The allocation ratios described below are calculated based on the total supply of HYPER.

Token Allocation Details

Community Allocation (57.02% of Total Supply)

Expansion Rewards (25.50%)

1. Allocate based on message fees to project partners and users on a quarterly basis.
2. The TGE phase will release 6.25% of this pool as a retrospective reward airdrop (Expansion Drop), of which 85% will penetrate to the application end-users. Eligible addresses must meet the following criteria: pay at least 5 USD equivalent fees by the time of the snapshot. End-users of chains, applications, and protocols that support Hyperlane infrastructure can participate in the airdrop, and the specific list can be found here and at the end of the text.

Strategic Startup Fund (11.52%)

1. Some of it is used to initiate HYPER liquidity and early market access, and to enhance the OpenUSDT minting activities (including retroactive incentives) in the subsequent quarter's Expansion Rewards.

• Tracing Reward Airdrop (Expansion Drop):
• 1.09%: The bonus applies to chains standardized by Hyperlane as bridges or official interoperability solutions (such as Eclipse, Injective EVM, etc.);
• 0.02%: Reward for Hyperlane GMP addresses holding Celestine Sloth Society or Mammoths NFTs;
• 0.10%: Rewards for addresses providing TIA LP liquidity on Manta or Arbitrum before January 30, 2024 (distributed according to liquidity ratio);
• 0.04%: Rewards top contributors of the Pilot Academy and other community members.

Staking Rewards (20.00%)

1. TGE No Circulation
2. Linear release over 25 years, with quarterly issuance.

Contributors and Team Allocation (42.98% Long-term Lockup)

Core Team (25.00%)

• TGE without circulation, 25% unlocked after 12 months
• Remaining 75% will be released linearly over 24 months (total period 3 years).

Hyperlane Foundation Treasury (7.11%)

• Besides allocating 10.48% of the funds to the community through strategic startup funding, the remaining funds are used for long-term protocol governance and accelerating ecosystem growth (such as Grants/R&D).
• TGE no circulation, unlocking begins after 6 months
• Linear unlocking over 30 months (total period of 3 years).

Early Supporters (10.87%)

• TGE no circulation, 25% unlocked after 12 months
• The remaining 75% will be released linearly over 24 months (total period of 3 years).

Token Release Timeline

• February 28, 2025: Snapshot
• April 3, 2025: The preclaim will be launched through the Hyperlane Foundation website, where users can add eligible addresses, choose HYPER/stHYPER reward types, and specify the receiving network.
• April 13, 2025 (Eastern Time) 23:59:59: Preclaim phase ends
• Week of April 20, 2025: TGE Launch, Claim period begins
• May 5, 2025 (Eastern Time) 23:59:59: Claim deadline

The retroactive airdrop rewards (ExpansionDrop) that are not claimed or pre-claimed in the corresponding phase will be redistributed to future Hyperlane ecosystem incentive programs. Users must complete the pre-claim before the specified deadline and operate during the claim period after TGE to receive rewards.

Frequently Asked Questions: Click here for details

Chains, applications, and protocols supported by Hyperlane infrastructure (not an exhaustive list):

Chains：

Ancient8, Appchain, B Squared, Artela, Cheesechain, Eclipse, Endurance, Flow, Form, Forma, Injective, LogX, Lumia, Mint, Oort, Prom, SonicSVM, SOON, Stride, Superseed, Swell, Treasure, Vana, Viction, Zerion

Non-chains：

Amphor, Caldera, Cod3x, Dinero, Eclipse Fi, Elixir, EtherFi, Jito, Kyros, Merkly, Nucleus, Mellow rstETH, Ponder, PumpBTC, Re7, Renzo, Superform, Velodrome