Author: Zhou, ChainCatcher
On May 21, HYPE broke through $59, reaching a new high since September 2025, with a 24-hour increase of over 20%, and a market capitalization of nearly $15 billion.RankworldwideNo. 11name.
According to Santiment's analysis,Short squeeze and ETF inflowsThis was the direct trigger for this market trend.
Over the past few days, a large number of traders have bet against HYPE, causing funding rates on various trading platforms to surge and turn significantly negative. As prices continued to rise, bearish traders were forced to buy back their positions, further pushing up prices. Currently, HYPE open interest remains above $1.92 billion, with new traders continuing to enter the market and open interest remaining stable.
At the same time, ETF channels amplified capital inflows. According to SoSoValue data, the two US spot ETFs tracking Hyperliquid (21Shares' THYP and Bitwise's BHYP) saw a combined net inflow of approximately $22.3 million in their first week of operation.yesterdayIt recorded over US$25.46 million in a single day.Net inflow.
Analysts noted that in the first six trading days, the two Hyperliquid ETFs outperformed the Bitcoin ETF on three days and the Ethereum ETF on five days, based on market capitalization adjustments. Bitwise announced that it will use 10% of its BHYP management fees to continuously buy and pledge HYPE on its balance sheet.
It is worth noting that in the past three days, a16z, Goldman Sachs, Grayscale, and Galaxy Digital made moves almost simultaneously, and HYPE's largest external holding institution also quietly completed a handover.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, a16z began large-scale accumulation in August 2025, and this pace has accelerated this year. Currently, it has accumulated 9.18 million HYPE tokens, worth approximately $356 million, with an average price of $38.77. The holdings are distributed across dozens of addresses, with the majority currently staked.It has become HYPE's largest external holder, surpassing Paradigm, which had long held this position.
In the past 24 hours, a16z withdrew another 2.597 million tokens from various exchanges at an average price of $51.17, resulting in a paper profit of over $79 million, and it has not stopped adding to its position.
Other institutions have also been active. Goldman Sachs recently sold over $152 million in XRP, $500 million in ETH, and $450 million in BTC, and instead bought HYPE. Grayscale's associated addresses have bought and staked approximately $24.95 million in HYPE in the past week, and added approximately $12.1 million in the last 17 hours. Grayscale submitted its S-1 registration application for a HYPE spot ETF in January of this year.
In addition, Galaxy Digital's associated wallet purchased approximately $8.8 million worth of HYPE in the past two hours; Garrett Jin, an agent for 1011 Insider Whale, also deposited 10 million USDC into Hyperliquid to directly purchase HYPE.
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan recentlyHYPE is characterized as one of the most "pricingly distorted" assets in the current crypto market.He believes the market is still pricing HYPE within the framework of perpetual contract DEX tokens, while Hyperliquid's true size far exceeds this framework, with nearly half of the platform's trading volume related to non-crypto assets, covering commodities, stock indices, RWA, and even prediction markets.
Supporting this assessment is the real revenue generated by the Hyperliquid protocol itself. The platform channels 97% of its transaction fee revenue into the Assistance Fund, which continuously buys and burns HYPE on the open market, with a cumulative buyback of over $2.49 billion since 2025, accounting for 46% of the industry's total buyback amount.
On-chain data shows that Hyperliquid recently accounted for more than 42% of the total blockchain transaction fee revenue.
Revenue streams are also expanding. Following Coinbase's partnership with Circle as the USDC Treasury capital deployer, the AQAv2 upgrade has been activated, and USDC reserve earnings are expected to add approximately $440,000 in buyback potential to the protocol daily.
Regarding RWA, after the launch of HIP-3, the trading volume of perpetual contracts for commodities such as oil, gold, and silver continued to surge. During the conflict in Iran, the peak daily trading volume of crude oil perpetual contracts once exceeded $2.2 billion.
The open interest in perpetual contracts (RWA) on the Hyperliquid platform has reached a record high of $2.6 billion, more than doubling from two months ago. The platform boasts 1.2 million users and a total trading volume of $4.33 trillion, representing approximately 70% of the on-chain perpetual DEX market.
In the HIP-4 prediction market sector, Hyperliquid officially launched its prediction market feature in May of this year. The first binary contract for BTC price direction saw a daily trading volume approximately three times the combined volume of similar markets like Polymarket and Kalshi. ChainCatcher...Can Hyperliquid Win in the Prediction Market?Detailed analysis has already been provided.
According to the latest data from Polymarket, the market is betting on an 80% probability that HYPE will reach $66 by the end of 2026.0The probability of reaching $80 is 4%.6The probability of reaching $100 is %.32%.
Previously, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes publicly recommended that HYPE could reach $150 by August. Today, he posted again on social media, saying that HYPE is getting closer and closer to a new all-time high.
Hayes' Maelstrom fund had previously sold off its holdings of ENA, PENDLE, and ETHFI, and instead increased its holdings of HYPE. According to HyperInsight, Arthur Hayes currently holds 247,334 HYPE tokens, worth $14.5 million, with a paper profit of over $6.5 million.
However, Hyperliquid's rapid expansion also brought trouble. Especially after the launch of HIP-3, the trading volume of on-chain commodity contracts quickly eroded the weekend and after-hours trading sessions of traditional exchanges, directly...Stepping on the edge of Wall Street's interests.
Recently, CME and ICE have joined forces to pressure the U.S. CFTC to require Hyperliquid to register and accept regulation, arguing that its anonymous, 24/7 trading environment could distort global oil price benchmarks.
Meanwhile, according to Hyperinsight's on-chain monitoring, two addresses on Hyperliquid identified as major market makers withdrew nearly 90% of BTC and ETH liquidity during the same period, with a combined withdrawal estimated at nearly $100 million. ChainCatcher...Hyperliquid has disrupted Wall Street's plans; with regulations still uncertain, are market makers already fleeing?The above background information is analyzed in detail.
As the price of cryptocurrency continues to rise...HYPE has seen a gain of over 125% since the beginning of the year.FDVone timeBeyondAlready SOL,Operational risks can no longer be ignored..according toOn-chainMonitoring indicates that large investors are already establishing positions in HYPE while holding substantial spot positions.superior100 millionDollarofHedging is used to offset short positions.
Regulatory uncertainty has not yet dissipated, and the CFTC's stance on Hyperliquid remains a variable hanging over the company. Beyond the battle between bulls and bears, this struggle over the boundaries of on-chain finance is also far from over.
