HYPE Surges 101% This Year: What’s Driving Hyperliquid’s Growth?

TL;DR

HYPE has surged 101% year-to-date, while Bitcoin has decreased by 12%, driven by Hyperliquid's revenue diversification and strong performance. The platform generated $255M in revenue, with significant buybacks benefiting HYPE holders.

Key points

HYPE is up 101% year-to-date while Bitcoin is down 12%
Hyperliquid generated $255M in revenue YTD, more than the next two apps combined
97% of revenue accrues to HYPE holders through buybacks
Bitwise and 21Shares filed for HYPE ETFs, increasing institutional interest
Real-world asset trading on Hyperliquid reached $2.6 billion in open interest

Mentioned in this story

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MyriadHYPE

In brief

HYPE is up 91% year-to-date while Bitcoin is down 12%, a decoupling tied to Hyperliquid's revenue diversification beyond crypto perps.
Hyperliquid pulled $255M in revenue YTD, more than the next two apps combined, with 97% accruing to HYPE holders via buybacks.
Bitwise and 21Shares have filed for HYPE ETFs, with Bitwise committing to hold 10% of management fees in Hyperliquid on its balance sheet. Hyperliquid's native token HYPE has surged 101% year-to-date while Bitcoin is down 12% over the same period, highlighting a decoupling that Wall Street is starting to pay close attention to. HYPE’s run looks set to continue, with users of prediction market Myriad, owned by *Decrypt's* parent company Dastan, seeing an 85% chance the token reaches $52 in May, up from just 14% on May 15. The token is currently trading at $51.26, less than 2% shy of the target figure, per CoinGecko data. HYPE’s divergence from BTC reflects Hyperliquid’s transformation from a crypto perpetual exchange into a multi-asset platform targeting real-world assets, pre-IPO markets, and global financial infrastructure, according to market observers. Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, argued that the platform is undervalued in a tweet Monday, noting that it’s targeting the “$600 trillion global asset market.” He added that, “Hyperliquid is not a crypto app. It's a super app.”

Hyperliquid is not a crypto app. It's a super app.

It's not targeting the $3 trillion crypto economy. It's targeting the $600 trillion global asset market.

Investors are valuing it as one thing. It's the other.

— Matt Hougan (@Matt\_Hougan) May 19, 2026 The market is treating Bitcoin and HYPE as two completely different trades, according to Matthew Pinnock, COO at Altura DeFi. “Bitcoin is increasingly behaving like a macro reserve asset, so price action is heavily tied to Fed rates, ETF flows, and broader liquidity conditions,” he told *Decrypt*. On the other hand, HYPE is being priced more like “high-growth financial infrastructure,” with the exchange “absorbing volume across perpetuals, commodities, equities, and broader tokenized macro markets at a pace the market did not expect this early.”

Q&A

What factors are driving the growth of Hyperliquid's HYPE token?

HYPE's growth is driven by Hyperliquid's revenue diversification beyond crypto perps, generating $255M in revenue and attracting investor interest in its multi-asset platform.

How does Hyperliquid's revenue compare to other platforms?

Hyperliquid has pulled in $255M in revenue year-to-date, which is more than the next two apps combined and accounts for roughly one-third of all revenue across the top 10 protocols.

What is the significance of Bitwise and 21Shares filing for HYPE ETFs?

The filings for HYPE ETFs by Bitwise and 21Shares indicate growing institutional interest in HYPE, with Bitwise committing to allocate 10% of management fees to holding HYPE on its balance sheet.

What is the projected future price of HYPE according to market analysts?

Market analysts expect HYPE's price to potentially reach between $55 and $65, driven by momentum from real-world asset trading and ETF inflows.