Bitcoin slid close to $75,000 over the past 12 hours, marking its lowest level since April 2025, while the Fear and Greed Index fell to 18, back in extreme fear territory. In that sell-off, most top-100 tokens moved lower. HYPE did not follow the same path. The token saw little pressure over the last 24 hours and posted a gain of more than 35% over the past week.
HIP-3 opened the door to commodities and other tokenized markets
A major part of that move appears tied to changes inside Hyperliquid itself. After launching the HIP-3 upgrade in the second half of last year, the platform expanded beyond crypto perpetuals into tokenized stock indices, single-name equities, commodities, and major forex pairs. That broader product set arrived as gold and silver kept rising from the fourth quarter of last year.
According to the source material, Hyperliquid became one of the few decentralized venues where traders could go long silver directly with USDC. The result was a surge in activity. The Silver-USDC pair recorded more than $1.2 billion in daily volume, and open interest across the HIP-3 protocol climbed from $260 million in December to nearly $800 million by the end of January.
Protocol revenue is being routed into HYPE buybacks
Volume alone does not explain the market reaction. What pushed HYPE into focus was the platform’s token model. The article says Hyperliquid directs as much as 97% of protocol revenue to buying back HYPE on the open market. The point here is not a future promise but a standing on-chain mechanism tied to actual fees.
That creates a simple loop: more trading leads to more fee revenue, higher revenue increases buyback activity, and buybacks reduce liquid supply in the market. When silver trading accelerated during the final week of January, that process moved faster. Even as the broader market weakened, HYPE retained support from demand linked to real protocol income.
Traditional assets are becoming part of the on-chain trading mix
Hyperion DeFi CEO Hyunsu Jung described the rally as a story of different asset classes converging under the tokenization trend. The source frames Hyperliquid as evidence of that shift. A decentralized exchange once centered on crypto derivatives now carries meaningful open interest from commodities.
The article says users can trade silver with USDC, short the Nikkei index, and take positions on the euro exchange rate on-chain, without KYC and without a traditional broker. It also notes that Hyperliquid Strategies has filed an S-1 with the SEC and plans to raise about $1 billion through a SPAC merger, with a Nasdaq listing targeted for this year. At the same time, the team is developing the USDH stablecoin, and its proposal indicates that 95% to 100% of reserve interest would be used for HYPE buybacks and distribution.
Concentration and token unlocks remain part of the picture
The article also points to clear risks. A large share of HIP-3 open interest is concentrated in a single contract, which could become a liquidity problem during stressed market conditions. Team-linked wallets are also set to release about 1.2 million HYPE per month starting in January, adding a steady stream of supply.
Past price action shows how quickly sentiment can reverse. HYPE fell from its record high of $59 in September last year to $24 in early January, a drawdown of nearly 60%. The latest rebound has been sharp, but it still leaves the token well below its prior peak. The buyback model can amplify support when trading activity is strong. If volumes weaken, that support can fade as well.