HYPE’s price surged above $50 after a major short squeeze.
Institutions and crypto heavyweights are backing Hyperliquid.
Goldman Sachs disclosed a new Hyperliquid-linked position despite reducing its exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE surged back above $50 this week for the first time in roughly eight months, putting renewed focus on Arthur Hayes’ bullish prediction that the token could rally to $150 by August 2026.
The rally accelerated after traders aggressively bet against the token earlier this month, only to be caught on the wrong side as bullish momentum intensified.
It comes as industry figureheads, such as Bitwise’s Matt Hougan, have labeled the token “undervalued,” and Goldman Sachs revealed a small holding despite exiting Bitcoin and Ethereum.
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The rally in HYPE has also been driven by growing investor conviction that Hyperliquid is evolving beyond a niche decentralized finance platform into a major global derivatives venue.
“All the perpetual futures exchanges up until now were essentially built either on Solana or Ethereum,” Lorenzo Valente, crypto researcher at ARK Invest, said.
“This is a product that needs very low latency… and the reality for now, even on Solana… the product was just not there from a trader’s perspective.”
He added that Hyperliquid took a different approach by building its own blockchain infrastructure specifically for derivatives trading.
Valente said the platform is already processing close to $3 trillion in annualized trading volume and generating revenue at a pace rarely seen in crypto.
He also pointed to Hyperliquid’s growing dominance in decentralized perpetual futures markets.
“There are great teams on Ethereum, on Solana… but right now, really, Hyperliquid probably has like 80% market share,” Valente said.
According to blockchain analytics platform Santiment, funding rate data across exchanges showed “a major spike in negative funding,” signaling that traders were heavily shorting the asset in anticipation of a pullback.
“Instead, HYPE continued climbing, creating the conditions for a classic short squeeze,” Santiment said in a post on X.
“As the price kept rising, many bearish traders were forced to buy back their positions automatically, adding even more upward pressure to the rally.”
Santiment added that open interest in HYPE futures has remained elevated above $1.92 billion, even during the liquidation wave, suggesting that new traders continued entering the market as the token rallied.
Bitwise CIO Says HYPE Remains Undervalued.
Despite HYPE’s strong rally in 2026, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said the market still underestimates both the scale of Hyperliquid’s ambitions and its economic structure.
“Hyperliquid is one of the most important crypto projects to emerge in years,” Hougan wrote in a recent CIO memo.
Hougan argued that investors are incorrectly valuing Hyperliquid as merely a fast-growing crypto derivatives exchange.
Instead, he sees it as a broader financial infrastructure platform capable of hosting multiple asset classes.
“… it should be valued as a global super-app covering all assets: crypto, equities, commodities, FX, prediction markets, structured products, and more,” he wrote.
Hougan also highlighted the token’s aggressive value-accrual model, noting that approximately 99% of trading fees generated on Hyperliquid are directed toward buying back HYPE tokens.
According to Hougan, the disconnect between Hyperliquid’s revenue growth and its market valuation is one reason he believes HYPE remains mispriced.
Goldman Sachs Enters Ring
Investor attention intensified further this week after Goldman Sachs’ latest quarterly 13F filing revealed a small new position tied to the Hyperliquid ecosystem.
GOLDMAN SACHS SOLD $152M XRP THEY SOLD $500 MILLION OF ETHEREUM THEY SOLD $450 MILLION OF BITCOIN
It came as the Wall Street giant reduced exposure to several major crypto investment products, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
According to Arkham data, Goldman sold roughly $152 million in XRP-related ETF exposure, fully exiting positions in products including the Bitwise XRP ETF, the Franklin XRP Trust, and the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF.
The bank also cut approximately $500 million in Ethereum-related holdings and reduced Bitcoin trust and ETF exposure by roughly $450 million.
At the same time, Goldman disclosed a new $3.3 million position in Hyperliquid Strategies Inc., which trades under the ticker PURR.
It continues to retain substantial BTC positions overall, according to the blockchain tracker.
Hayes, who emerged as one of Hyperliquid’s most vocal supporters, argued that the token could dramatically outperform even during a weaker broader crypto market.
In a March essay, Hayes described HYPE as the highest-quality “exchange token” in crypto.
Hayes predicted it could climb to $150 by August 2026 — roughly five times higher than the token’s price when he wrote the piece.
“My August 2026 target price for $HYPE is $150,” he said, “which is roughly 5x higher than its current price of around $30 at the time of writing this essay.”
He argued that Hyperliquid does not need the overall crypto market to boom for HYPE to continue rising, because the platform can expand simply by taking market share from centralized exchanges.
Hayes added that markets tied to commodities, equity indexes, and prediction markets could further accelerate demand for the token.
“Precious metals, AI stonks, and oil are what the plebes desire to trade,” Hayes said. “And now, using perps, anyone from around the world can trade 24/7 with higher leverage than TradFi exchanges offer.”
Whale Accumulation
On-chain data also showed large investors accumulating HYPE during the rally.
Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported that a wallet linked to Galaxy Digital purchased 158,100 HYPE tokens, worth roughly $8.8 million, over a two-hour period.
The firm also identified a newly created wallet that withdrew 536,247 HYPE tokens — valued at nearly $30 million — from Coinbase over the past two days.
Valente said one of the most important developments for Hyperliquid could be its growing role in pre-IPO and macro trading markets.
“They launch Builder Codes… it allows for anyone to launch a perpetual futures market by staking several HYPE tokens,” he said.
The system has already enabled markets for commodities, stock indexes, and synthetic pre-IPO trading linked to companies such as SpaceX and Cerebras.
“This is really the wisdom of the crowds,” Valente said.
Adding: “Can some of these markets get big enough where they start to influence how people underwrite tender offers, rounds, or even IPOs? Maybe this is the real pricing.”
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
