A few months ago, Hyperliquid was a DeFi insider's story. Now, some of the biggest names in the ETF industry are lining up to file for it. That's a meaningful shift worth paying attention to.
Bitwise filed an amended registration statement with the SEC for a proposed ETF holding Hyperliquid's HYPE token directly, trading under ticker BHYP on NYSE Arca. The fund includes a staking component with about 85% of staking rewards retained after fees, a 0.67% annual management fee, and custody handled by Anchorage Digital.
HYPE has surged around 200% over the last 12 months, as it became the go-to decentralized trading platform for perpetual contracts, including those tied to traditional financial products. Other asset managers have also moved to list HYPE-linked ETFs — including Grayscale, which filed last month to list under the ticker GHYP on Nasdaq, as well as 21Shares and VanEck.
So why is Hyperliquid attracting this much attention from TradFi? A few reasons.
Hyperliquid built a fully on-chain order book for perpetual futures — something that sounds niche but actually matters a lot. It means you get the speed and liquidity of a centralized exchange with the transparency and self-custody of DeFi. In a post-FTX world, that combination is genuinely compelling. No off-chain matching engine. No hidden counterparty risk. Everything verifiable on-chain.
The HYPE token captures the value of that ecosystem — fees, governance, and protocol activity flow back to holders. And with $215M+ in daily volume at peak, there's real activity underlying the token, not just speculation.
That said, there are things to watch carefully. Perpetual DEXes are still complex products with liquidation risks. The HYPE token is still relatively concentrated among early holders. And an ETF filing doesn't mean approval — the SEC's timeline on altcoin ETFs remains uncertain.
But the signal is clear: when Bitwise, Grayscale, 21Shares, and VanEck all file for the same token within months of each other, that token has moved from "alt scene" to "institutional pipeline." That's a structural shift, regardless of short-term price.
Watch for the approval timeline. That's the real catalyst.
#Hyperliquid #HYPE #CryptoETF #DeFi #Altcoins