Hyperliquid [HYPE] hit a series of new all-time highs (ATH) on the price chart this week, thanks to media attention and ETF flows.
On the 29th of May, the altcoin climbed to another record high of $67.5, with the market cap surpassing $17B.
This briefly flipped Dogecoin [DOGE], as HYPE became the ninth-largest crypto by market cap and firmly joined the top 10 list. This would make Tron [TRX] and Solana [SOL] the next targets.
As of writing, however, the altcoin gave back some gains and traded at $64.5 and ranked 10th by market size on CoinMarketCap.
HYPE has rallied 70% since mid-May and surged 3X from the February lows of $20. The parabolic rally in May was triggered by Coinbase’s USDC deal and sustained by the strong ETF flows.
But Friday’s pump was a complete surprise.
Hyperliquid foresees DeFi perps in the U.S
Notably, on Friday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved the first Bitcoin perpetual Futures contract (perps) for Kalshi and Coinbase. Perps allow users to gain exposure to assets with limited capital.
Hyperliquid’s breakout success was hinged on crypto perps. Later on, it diversified into commodities or RWA (real-world assets) perps, pre-IPO, and now prediction markets.
In fact, perps is the most dominant segment in terms of volume and Open Interest across the entire crypto market.
Hence, Hyperliquid’s moat quickly elevated it as a top challenger to Binance, Coinbase, and even top traditional players like Nasdaq. Some analysts claimed that since crypto perps were not legal, U.S. citizens were leveraging VPNs to use Hyperliquid.
Assuming this is true, the CFTC’s approved perps would have been deemed negative for Hyperliquid. This is because Coinbase and Kalshi are now regulated rivals.
But Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC), the research and lobby arm of the decentralized exchange (DEX), downplayed the threat. In fact, HPC’s CEO Jake Chervinsky saw it as a positive update and noted,
This was always an expected and necessary first step on the long road toward enabling DeFi perps in the USA.
Currently, the rules apply to perps on centralized exchanges but not DEXes. Interestingly, the update, including a series of unstaked HYPE, didn’t deter bulls. Should bulls continue to defend $60 as support, the next upside targets could be $70 and $80.
Final Summary
- HYPE briefly flipped DOGE as the ninth-largest crypto asset after climbing to a record high of $67.5.
- Hyperliquid views the U.S. first CEX crypto perps as the ‘first step’ to DeFi perps and not a threat to the platform.
