“HYPE should at least surpass SOL before the end of this bull market,” BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes declared publicly in late May, having previously predicted HYPE would hit $150. The feud began when Multicoin Capital’s former co-founder Kyle Samani took shots at Hyperliquid, leading to a $100,000 bet that HYPE would outperform every top-10 crypto by market cap for the rest of the year. HYPE has since surged, breaking through $75 to a new all-time high amid both fear of heights and attempts to short. This piece analyzes HYPE’s shifting fundamentals from the perspective of market buy pressure.
ETF inflows top $136M, market cap absorption outpaces BTC and ETH ETFs
Two HYPE spot ETFs are now trading: 21Shares’ THYP on Nasdaq and Bitwise’s BHYP on NYSE. By June 2, they had logged 14 straight days of net inflows, accumulating over $136 million—roughly 0.9% of HYPE’s market cap. Bitwise’s BHYP accounted for $82.96 million of that total, making it the largest HYPE ETF. Among all U.S. crypto spot ETFs, HYPE ETFs now rank fifth by cumulative net inflows, trailing only BTC, ETH, XRP, and SOL products, and leaving earlier-launched altcoin ETFs far behind.
The divergence becomes even clearer when compared to major coin ETFs. Since May, BTC spot ETFs have experienced 12 consecutive days of outflows, totaling over $2.43 billion for the month; ETH spot ETFs saw 16 straight days of outflows, losing more than $540 million; and the newly launched VanEck BNB ETF recorded zero inflows for four straight days. By market-cap share, HYPE’s ETF absorbed 0.9% of its total market cap in the first two weeks—far exceeding BTC’s 0.2%, SOL’s 0.47%, and ETH’s net outflows. Institutional appetite for HYPE is demonstrably stronger than for any previous launch-day ETF.
Protocol revenue buybacks and institutional accumulation create dual support
Beyond ETFs, Hyperliquid’s Assistance Fund (AF) mechanism is the other major buyback driver. The system automatically uses 99% of protocol fees (perps and spot) to repurchase HYPE, having accumulated over $1.1 billion in HYPE purchases since inception. Daily protocol income ranges between $1 million and $3 million, providing consistent buy pressure. The new ETF inflows add a second support layer: in just two weeks, net ETF inflows already reached one-tenth of the AF’s total buyback volume, with a single-day record of $31.62 million on May 29, effectively offsetting potential selling from team token unlocks.
Since January 2026, team tokens unlock on the 6th of each month. On June 6, $38.7 million worth of tokens will be released. ETF investors, however, tend to be less sensitive to tokenomics, so as long as the project’s fundamentals remain intact, the unlock is unlikely to trigger heavy selling.
More ETFs are on the horizon. On June 2, Grayscale filed an amended S-1 for its Hyperliquid Staking ETF (HYPG), seeding the fund with approximately 2 million HYPE and set to begin trading on June 4. This will deepen HYPE’s liquidity and institutional participation further.
Heavyweight accumulation: a16z and Galaxy Digital stockpile HYPE
Institutional hoarding is accelerating. Since August 2025, a16z has been aggressively accumulating HYPE, with on-chain data suggesting it may now be the sixth-largest on-chain holder (and the largest external entity). Its primary address holds 3.095 million HYPE, worth over $223 million. Multiple associated addresses continue to withdraw tokens from exchanges and market makers: on May 28, the 0x4c6 address extracted 253,947.43 HYPE at an average price of $59.2; on May 30, the 0xb5E address purchased another 226,121 HYPE, bringing its total purchases since April 14 to 3.9 million HYPE at an average of $49.4.
Galaxy Digital is also loading up. On June 3, it withdrew 179,000 HYPE ($12.62 million) from Coinbase, following a May 21 purchase of 158,100 HYPE ($8.8 million) via another wallet. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan remarked that HYPE is not just another altcoin but a “second-generation” cryptocurrency with real value capture and buyback mechanisms. Grayscale’s research positions Hyperliquid as a potential challenger to traditional derivatives exchanges, describing it as a financial infrastructure platform. Furthermore, HYPE-bullish DAT company PURR has been listed on the Russell 3000 preliminary addition roster for 2026, which—if confirmed on June 26—could attract passive fund allocations and possibly emulate Strategy’s “borrow-to-buy” model, providing yet another steady source of buy pressure.
Driven by the triple engine of ETF inflows, protocol buybacks, and institutional accumulation, HYPE’s new all-time high may simply be the beginning of a larger narrative upgrade.