Institutional asset managers are moving fast to secure large positions in Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE. On-chain data surfaced by blockchain analytics firm Arkham reveals that Bitwise recently disclosed its exchange-traded fund addresses, confirming it has purchased and staked $19.78 million worth of HYPE. This purchase positions Bitwise at an unrealized gain of $2.4 million as market demand intensifies.
BITWISE IS BUYING $HYPE
Bitwise have announced their ETF addresses. They have bought a total of $19.78M HYPE so far and staked it. They are already up $2.4 Million.
Tradfi is coming for your $HYPE. pic.twitter.com/LuOkssRmu1
— Arkham (@arkham) May 21, 2026
At the same time, Grayscale appears to be using a similar accumulation strategy. A wallet address suspected to belong to Grayscale pulled in 176,050 HYPE, valued near $9.86 million, using known over-the-counter desks like Wintermute and FalconX. The company subsequently moved the bulk of these tokens directly into the Hyperliquid system address to participate in network staking. This activity follows Grayscale filing a preliminary Form S-1 for a spot HYPE ETF earlier this year.
HYPE Token approaches peak valuation
The sudden inflow of institutional capital has indeed exploded the derivatives markets. CoinGecko noted that the token surged to $57.78, putting it within 1.4% of its previous all-time high of $59.30, which was established late last year.
This upward boost has left traders in a highly tough spot. Lookonchain monitored a prominent perpetual trader expanding a massive short position to $100.7 million notional value at 5x leverage on Hyperliquid.
Why are Wall Street firms suddenly targeting Hyperliquid?
Market participants are increasingly asking if spot crypto products are moving toward high-performance layer-1 networks. Hyperliquid has gained structural traction due to its decentralized perpetuals trading platform, making its asset a main target for yield-seeking institutions.
This capital concentration follows previous trends where large asset managers locked up supply to back regulated investment vehicles, effectively moving out retail short sellers.
Hyperliquid is expanding into a full-stack on-chain financial system. New data from RootData reveals a network of 30 native Web3 peers, building, buying, and selling, wallets, and infrastructure, which underlines Hyperliquid’s ambitions to dominate decentralized finance.
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