Hyperliquid ETFs Defy a Down Market With a 50% Volume Jump
Hyperliquid ETFs from Bitwise and 21Shares recorded a 50% volume jump on Wednesday, a rare feat for newly launched funds. The growth comes as HYPE outperforms a market where almost everything else is falling.
Quick Insights
- US-listed Hyperliquid ETFs from Bitwise and 21Shares recorded a roughly 50% jump in trading volume on Wednesday, a rare pattern for newly launched funds.
- The two ETFs have traded a combined $41 million since launching earlier this month, with the 21Shares product's daily volume up roughly 8x from its $1.8 million debut day.
- The funds posted their strongest day of net inflows on Wednesday at a combined $25.5 million, outpacing the combined XRP and Solana ETF inflows for the day.
- HYPE has gained more than 45% in a week and over 100% in 2026 to around $56, briefly pushing Hyperliquid's fully diluted valuation above Solana's.
US-listed exchange-traded funds tracking Hyperliquid's HYPE token recorded a roughly 50% jump in trading volume on Wednesday, a rare trajectory for funds that launched only days earlier. The growth runs directly against the broader market backdrop. While stocks, bonds, gold and most major cryptocurrencies have fallen over recent sessions, HYPE has rallied, and the ETFs tied to it have built momentum rather than fading after launch.
A Build That ETF Analysts Almost Never See
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas flagged the trajectory as unusual. Most newly launched ETFs make a "big splash on day one then drop off," he noted, with many fading into obscurity for months before anyone notices them again. Building volume in the first week, as the HYPE funds have done, is rare.
"Rare to build in first week like this. Perfectly timed launch as EVERYTHING (stocks, bonds, gold, btc, cryptos) is down lately except the HYPE."
The 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF (THYP) launched on Nasdaq on 12 May as the first US-listed HYPE product, drawing $1.2 million in net inflows and $1.8 million in trading volume on its debut. That was a slow start by altcoin ETF standards, well below the $56 million first-day volume that Bitwise's Solana staking ETF recorded. The Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP) followed on the NYSE on 15 May with $750,000 in opening inflows.
Both funds have grown steadily since. The 21Shares product's daily turnover climbed from $1.8 million on day one to roughly $14 million within days, an eightfold increase. Wednesday brought the combined record inflow day of $25.5 million, with 21Shares taking $16.6 million and Bitwise $8.8 million, outpacing the combined inflows into XRP and Solana ETFs for the same session.
The Buyback Model Is Doing a Lot of the Work
The structural reason behind HYPE's resilience is the token's design. Hyperliquid directs more than 95% of its protocol revenue toward buying back and burning HYPE on a daily basis. With the platform generating over $56 million in monthly trading fees and handling roughly $8 billion in daily volume, that buyback creates persistent structural demand for the token regardless of broader market conditions. The ETF inflows now compound on top of that built-in buy pressure.
Bitwise has leaned into the model directly, pledging to use 10% of its BHYP management fees to buy and hold HYPE tokens. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan argued in a memo this week that HYPE remains one of crypto's most mispriced assets, contending that the market is still valuing Hyperliquid as a crypto perpetual futures venue when it should be compared to a global multi-asset trading platform spanning crypto, equities, commodities, foreign exchange and prediction markets.
The momentum has pushed HYPE up more than 45% in a week to around $56, lifting its fully diluted valuation above Solana's for the first time. Hyperliquid now commands roughly 60% of all on-chain perpetual futures open interest globally. Grayscale filed for its own HYPE ETF in March, currently under SEC review, and on-chain trackers flagged that wallets linked to Grayscale bought and staked $25 million of HYPE over the past week, though it is not confirmed whether the purchase relates to the planned fund.
The bear case has not vanished. Two major Hyperliquid market makers withdrew nearly $100 million in liquidity earlier this week after CME and ICE publicly urged the CFTC to regulate the platform more strictly, thinning order book depth. Regulatory scrutiny and competition from rival venues remain the primary risks. But for now, HYPE is the rare asset rising in a falling market, and its ETFs are capturing the attention that comes with it.
