When the crypto market emerged more than a decade ago, its proponents presented it as “us versus them” – a rebellious struggle against Wall Street and traditional markets.
Over time, the great divide slowly narrowed with the emergence of popular traditional instruments such as cryptocurrency-related futures and ETFs, and now the two worlds have merged on decentralized platforms.
The record rally of Hyperliquid’s HYPE token, a decentralized exchange, reflects exactly that, according to Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Nasdaq-listed Hyperion DeFi. It is the first publicly traded US company to build a long-term strategic treasury of HYPE tokens. At the end of last year, he held over 1.4 million HYPE tokens.
The HYPE token surged more than 50% to $34 this week, leaving bitcoin ether and other major tokens far behind. Bitcoin rose just 1.84%, while the CoinDesk 20 Index, a broader market gauge, gained more than 4%, according to CoinDesk data.
“This is the story of the convergence of all asset classes under the megatrend of tokenization in an increasingly financialized world – which is increasingly happening on hyperliquid,” Hyunsu said, explaining the HYPE rally.
While Hyperliquid began as a decentralized exchange for trading perpetual futures contracts linked to cryptocurrencies, it has since expanded its product range to include trading in stock indices, stocks, commodities, and major fiat currency pairs.
This change stems from the Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal-3 (HIP-3), launched in October 2025, which allows anyone staking 500,000 HYPE tokens to freely create markets for non-crypto assets.
The timing couldn’t have been better, as traditional assets, particularly gold and silver, have gone crazy since late 2025, driving huge trading volumes and fees in hyperliquid markets for these assets. The silver-USDC market saw over $1 billion in trading volume in the last 24 hours alone. The numbers look even more impressive on a broader scale.
“In just 3 months after this upgrade, Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 markets captured over $1 billion in open interest, approximately $25 billion in total trading volume, and over $3 million in total fees, all seamlessly on-chain,” Hyunsu noted. “Users around the world can now access and trade stocks (e.g. those from countries that could not access US stocks) or gain exposure to the incredible metals trading over the past few months.”
The rise in fees results in a rise in HYPE prices via a token burning mechanism. Hyperliquid burns HYPE based on protocol fees via an automated mechanism, with up to 97% of fee revenue used to buy back HYPE and remove the coins from circulation.
“This is a deflationary mechanism not found in any other blockchain ecosystem, and an incredible structural tailwind to our treasury,” Hyunsu said.
He explained that the continuous 24/7 availability of traditional markets on Hyperliquid allows traders to react to global events, helping to achieve fairer spot prices outside of normal hours and even on weekends when traditional markets are closed.
