It’s been a pretty interesting day for altcoins, especially one in particular. The native token for Hyperliquid, which goes by HYPE, actually hit a new all-time high earlier this Thursday. It seems to be part of a broader move as traders react to the possibility of Fed rate cuts, but HYPE is definitely standing out from the pack.
The token reached $59.29 during the early trading hours. That’s a gain of about 8% for the day. But the bigger story is probably the longer trend. Over the past month, it’s up almost 40%. That’s a significant jump, especially when you stack it against the more established names like Bitcoin and Ether, which have been relatively flat in comparison.
What Is Hyperliquid, Anyway?
For those who aren’t deep in the crypto weeds, Hyperliquid is a decentralized exchange. Its main thing is perpetual futures—which are basically derivative contracts that don’t have an expiry date. It lets people speculate on crypto price movements with leverage without actually having to own the underlying asset. It’s gained a real following.
Arthur Hayes, the founder of BitMEX, noticed the milestone. He called it an “All-time Hype” in a post today. He’s been bullish on it for a while. Back in August, he suggested the token had a potential upside of 126 times. His reasoning was that stablecoin growth could push the exchange’s annualized fees into the hundreds of billions. That’s a massive number compared to where it is now.
Big Bets and Bigger Rivals
The analytics platform Nansen pointed out one trader who’s making a huge bet. This person has a leveraged long position on HYPE worth around $30 million. Their unrealized profit is sitting at nearly $1.4 million, and apparently, they’re still adding to the position every half minute. It’s a serious vote of confidence.
HYPE was one of the top performers among major altcoins today. Only Avalanche (AVAX) did slightly better.
But the plot thickens. Just a few hours before HYPE peaked, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as CZ, posted a chart for a token called ASTER. It’s the native token of a rival derivatives exchange. This feels intentional.
ASTER is new—it just launched trading on Wednesday. And it’s already up over 350%, hitting its own all-time high of $0.50. The project is backed by entities linked to CZ and is seen as a direct competitor to Hyperliquid.
The Battle for Market Share
One crypto commentator, LANGERIUS from Hunters of Web3, speculated that CZ’s post wasn’t random. “CZ rarely shares charts. But he posted ASTER. Why? Because it’s a direct Hyperliquid rival, and Hyperliquid keeps stealing Binance’s market share.”
There might be some truth to that. A report back in April noted that Hyperliquid’s growing trading volumes were starting to cut into Binance’s dominance. Of course, the scale is still completely different. Hyperliquid’s daily volume is around $790 million. Binance’s is over $34 billion. So there’s a long road ahead, but the competition is clearly heating up. It’s something to watch.
