HYPE defends January lows, but will that be enough to avoid a breakdown?

• Hyperliquid saw steady growth in new users and daily volume over the past two months
• Decline in Open Interest and hike in spot selling could take HYPE’s price below the nearby support level

At the time of writing, the total crypto market cap was down 13% from 09 January. In fact, the altcoin market cap (excluding Ethereum [ETH]) was down 17.5%. In comparison, the DEX platform Hyperliquid’s [HYPE] token was down by 7.2% from that day’s open.

The 1-day price chart showed that HYPE tested the January lows at $18.5 a few times in recent days. The bulls have defended this level so far – An encouraging sign. And yet, the OBV fell off a cliff.

Heightened selling pressure in the spot market saw the OBV dive below its January lows, even though the price stayed put. This suggested that unless buying volume increases dramatically soon, HYPE might fall below the $18.5 support soon.

Do Hyperliquid metrics suggest a price drop is soon incoming?

Source: Dune Analytics

Data from Dune Analytics revealed that November and December saw a significant hike in daily volume on the Hyperliquid platform. It also saw a swift surge in new users. In January, however, the number of new users dropped.

And yet, over the last two months, the number of new users has not continued to trend south. Instead, it has maintained a relatively even trajectory. At the same time, the daily trading volume has also maintained a flat trend, instead of falling lower.

These were also positive signs that the Hyperliquid platform continued to see traffic, despite difficult market conditions and bearish sentiments.

Source: Artemis

The fees generated stat also backed this idea.

Compared to late December, the fees generated have risen – A byproduct of increased volume. However, this might not directly translate into demand for HYPE due to the fearful market sentiment.

Source: Coinglass

Finally, over the last ten days, the Open Interest has slowly begun to trend lower. This hinted at a fall in speculative activity and pointed towards sidelined traders and prevalent bearishness.

A HYPE price drop below $18.5 may be possible, especially if Bitcoin [BTC] falls below the $80k psychological level again. If the sentiment begins to recover in the coming days, HYPE bulls might manage to defend the $19 support zone.