HYPE, the native token of Hyperliquid, a decentralized platform for trading derivatives and perpetual futures contracts, rose more than 17% in value for the week today, May 19, 2026, while a significant portion of the crypto market is operating in the red.
In the past 7 days, HYPE price increased from $40.88 to $48.08.
One of the main catalysts was the launch of a HYPE-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US.
On May 12, 2026, 21Shares launched the 21Shares HyperLiquid ETF (THYP) on Nasdaq. The product offers regulated exposure to HYPE and is structured as a mutual fund, allowing you to hold tokens and stake a portion of your holdings.
Three days later, on May 15, Bitwise launched the Bitwise HyperLiquid ETF (BHYP) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). On that first day, The fund reported capital inflows of $750,000.
Unlike 21Shares, Bitwise does not rely on external validators and uses its own infrastructure for staking through Bitwise Onchain Solutions.
These financial products have raised $4.42 million since being launched on the market.
The launch of Bitwise and 21Shares intensifies competition for institutional funding for Hyperliquid. It’s worth remembering that Grayscale has also filed regulatory documents to launch its own HYPE-based fund.
Integration into the Hyperliquid ecosystem
Another relevant factor was the official integration of Coinbase with Hyperliquid, announced on May 14, 2026. The American exchange plans to take over the role of official treasury provider and make USDC the platform’s main linked trading asset.
This means: USDC serves as the primary basis for liquidity, collateral, and trading pairs within Hyperliquid.will gradually replace USDH, the stablecoin previously used on the network.
According to Coinbase, USDC’s total supply in Hyperliquid is already around $5 billion, which is double what it was a year ago. This integration aims to reduce friction for institutional and retail traders in a 24-hour market.
The ecosystem then gained traction with the launch of SPCX-USDC, a market created by Trade.xyz, a platform specializing in synthetic derivatives and pre-IPO markets, on the Hyperliquid order book.
SPCX-USDC A synthetic perpetual contract based on SpaceX’s implicit valuation.. That is, it does not represent actual or tokenized shares of Elon Musk’s company.
The difference is important. That is, in a synthetic contract, Traders speculate on the reference price through derivatives without transferring the underlying stock.. This model aims to avoid some of the legal issues that have recently plagued tokenized equity products based on special purpose vehicles (SPVs).
SPCX was launched at a price of $150, which corresponds to SpaceX’s implied valuation of $1.78 trillion. In the first few hours, the market recorded $33 million in trading volume and $21.8 million in open interest. It is currently trading at $200.53.
The controversial point is that SpaceX is not yet listed on a stock exchange, so these products do not represent actual shares in the company or confer any rights.
Look what happened with Anthropic. As reported by CriptoNoticias, on May 12th, the tokenized “equity” subsequently plummeted. Claude, the company that created artificial intelligence (AI), will reveal that the transfer was invalid if it was not approved by the board of directors. And it will not be officially recognized.
Therefore, while SPCX-USDC seeks to differentiate itself from these models by acting as a synthetic derivative rather than as a tokenized stock backed by an SPV, the fundamental debate remains unresolved. What legitimacy do these markets have in determining the price of private companies before a formal IPO?.
Still, Hyperliquid continues to establish itself as one of the fastest growing ecosystems within on-chain transactions. HYPE’s recent performance shows how certain assets can become decoupled from general market trends when they attract new institutional investors, increased liquidity, and a concentration of highly speculative financial products.
(Tag Translation) Altcoin
