Hyperliquid HYPE Gains 24% on ETF, Coinbase and Whale Activity

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token climbed about 24% over six days to $47.60, reaching roughly 19% below its all-time high. On-chain social activity also increased, with Santiment recording HYPE social dominance at 1.79% on May 14.

Two institutional developments occurred in mid-May. On May 14 the U.S. Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the Clarity Act. On the same day, Coinbase announced it would serve as the official treasury deployer of USDC on Hyperliquid, and Circle was named a technical deployer for USDC as an Aligned Quote Asset. Bitwise launched the BHYP exchange-traded fund on the New York Stock Exchange on May 15 and said it will allocate 10% of management fees to buy HYPE for its balance sheet.

Protocol activity and design also contributed to on-chain flows. Hyperliquid’s economics direct about 99% of protocol revenue to token buybacks and permanent burns. Open interest in real-world asset trading on the platform reached a record $2.6 billion, a level that doubled over the prior two months.

Trade.xyz added trading activity on May 18 by launching SPCX, a synthetic pre-IPO perpetual tied to SpaceX. Trade.xyz reported 24-hour revenue of $1,829,079, which was used to buy and burn HYPE. Hyperliquid-related accounts report total permanent burns exceeding 45.4 million HYPE, with an estimated value above $2.2 billion.

Large-holder accumulation was visible on-chain. Data from analytics groups showed a wallet linked to venture firm a16z amassed 372,000 HYPE; since April 14 that address purchased about 2.11 million HYPE, roughly $90.9 million. Additional on-chain activity included one address selling 1,733 XAUT (about $7.8 million) and routing $10.2 million in USDC into Hyperliquid to buy 103,636 HYPE and open a five-times leveraged long. Another address deposited $4.87 million to acquire about 102,055 HYPE near $47.75.

ETF cash flows, Coinbase and Circle treasury deployments, higher RWA trading and concentrated whale purchases occurred alongside Hyperliquid’s automatic buyback-and-burn mechanism during the recent price increase.