Hyperliquid's HYPE token soars 60% amid DEX expansion: Can momentum sustain?
The HYPE token from Hyperliquid jumped 60% following significant increases in staking activity and open interest, though certain decentralized exchange fundamentals suggest uncertainty about the rally's sustainability.
Key takeaways:
- The HYPE token experienced a 60% surge reaching $34.90, driven by institutional investor purchases from Hyperliquid Strategies and decreased selling pressure following staking unlocks.
- Over $20 million in bearish liquidations and a positive ARK Invest report sparked additional speculation even as perpetual volumes remained unchanged.
The Hyperliquid (HYPE) token rocketed to $34.90 during Wednesday's trading session, representing a substantial climb from its $21.80 price point recorded just 48 hours earlier. This impressive 60% price increase resulted in more than $20 million worth of liquidations affecting bearish leveraged trading positions, sparking additional speculation about potential movement toward the $40 threshold. This upward momentum emerged following news that a publicly traded company specializing in digital asset reserves incorporated HYPE into its treasury holdings, while sell pressure simultaneously decreased after a significant staking unlock event.
Social media user lukecannon727 on the X platform voiced concerns about whether Hyperliquid Strategies (PURR US) has been redirecting transaction flows away from the market maker Flowdesk. These concerns arose after community members identified an accumulation of 3.6 million HYPE tokens that began on December 12, 2025. The wallet addresses connected to this activity proceeded to stake their HYPE holdings within hours of receiving them through Anchorage custody solutions.
Did Hyperliquid flip Binance?
Certain market observers linked HYPE's upward price movement to heightened onchain activity on Hyperliquid, despite the fact that synthetic perpetual volumes and platform fees displayed no meaningful variation. In a similar vein, open interest on the Hyperliquid platform reached $8.5 billion on Tuesday, remaining essentially unchanged from the previous week's figures. Concrete evidence of a substantial transformation in Hyperliquid platform usage is scarce, with the exception of heightened trading activity in silver contracts.
The official X account belonging to Hyperliquid announced a record-breaking level of open interest on Monday, attributed to increased trading volumes in synthetic commodity products. CEO Jeff Yan of Hyperliquid reposted this information, highlighting that Hyperliquid's Bitcoin futures liquidity had exceeded that of Binance. His analysis featured a comparative screenshot displaying the BTC perpetual futures orderbooks from both Binance and Hyperliquid platforms.
Yan's assessment proposed that Hyperliquid has emerged as the central hub for "crypto price discovery," though this conclusion overlooks the fact that Binance's combined BTC futures open interest totals $12.3 billion. The centralized platform additionally provides monthly contract options and contracts that settle in both BTC and Tether (USDT). When examining the full picture, Binance's BTC open interest continues to dwarf Hyperliquid's by a factor of five.
Earlier selling pressure on HYPE has been linked to Continue Capital, particularly following reports that the fund manager offloaded 297,000 HYPE tokens two weeks prior, as noted by X user murda0x. The most recent significant staking unlock attributed to Continue Capital took place on Jan. 21, involving 1.47 million HYPE tokens. An additional 1.5 million HYPE tokens were recently unlocked by wallets associated with what has been described as a "Tornado Cash cluster."
A research publication from ARK Invest released on Jan. 22 likely contributed significantly to attracting investor attention. The document characterized Hyperliquid as among "the most revenue efficient companies in the world," leveraging decentralized finance (DeFi) derivatives to compete head-to-head with conventional exchanges. The analysts emphasized that blockchain networks are transforming into monetary assets as their utility expands.
HYPE's inability to maintain price levels above $34 during Wednesday's session doesn't automatically spell disaster, though the probability remains high that the recent price appreciation stemmed from isolated incidents, including capital inflows from a digital assets reserve company and diminished selling pressure. Although Hyperliquid's long-term fundamental outlook appears robust, concrete evidence supporting $40 as the next logical price target for the HYPE token remains elusive.