Hyperliquid has damaged ranks with the broader digital asset market, posting an enormous double-digit rally whereas Bitcoin and different main altcoins like XRP endure from the bear market.
Based on CryptoSlate’s knowledge, Hyperliquid’s HYPE is among the crypto market’s prime performers over the previous two weeks, leaping roughly 71% to a excessive of $35, its highest worth since final December.
This worth efficiency displays crypto merchants’ optimistic sentiment concerning the protocol’s potential to broaden product choices.
Notably, the value motion stands in sharp distinction to the ugly tape elsewhere. Over the previous weeks, a pointy risk-off wave has hit corners of the market, and the injury hasn’t been remoted to digital property.
The identical macro tremors that knocked crypto decrease additionally jolted treasured metals and different danger trades, wiping round $6 trillion over the primary few weeks of 2026.
And but in the course of that enormous market-wide pink display, HYPE is performing like a unique animal, with US traders driving its uptrend.
The only rationalization that capital is simply rotating into a robust chart misses what makes this transfer structurally fascinating.
Basically, HYPE is more and more buying and selling much less like a generic altcoin and extra like an exchange-linked asset whose demand can rise as a result of markets get messy. In a risk-off regime, most tokens are punished for being “danger.”
Nevertheless, venues that monetize volatility can see fundamentals enhance when everybody else’s fundamentals degrade.
Hyperliquid’s volatility income
Hyperliquid’s core product is perpetual futures. When volatility spikes, perpetual quantity sometimes rises as merchants hedge, speculate, rotate throughout property, and are liquidated extra incessantly.
That exercise throws off charges, and Hyperliquid’s design hyperlinks these charges again to token demand in a direct, mechanical loop.
On DefiLlama, Hyperliquid Perps exhibits a 30-day perp quantity of $216.286 billion and a 24-hour perp quantity of $11.778 billion.
This exercise is accompanied by 30-day income of $68.42 million and annualized income of $834.7 million. On the similar time, open curiosity on the platform presently exceeds $6 billion.
These numbers matter due to the “what occurs subsequent” step. DefiLlama’s methodology notes that 99% of charges go to an Help Fund for getting HYPE tokens, excluding builder charges.
In different phrases, extra buying and selling exercise can translate into extra purchase stress for the token, which is constructed into the plumbing somewhat than depending on sentiment.
That’s the core purpose HYPE can look like the “sole winner” throughout broad drawdowns. If worry will increase turnover, the protocol’s cashflow loop can strengthen even whereas the remainder of the market deleverages.
For context, knowledge from ASXN present that the every day HYPE buyback price climbed to just about $4 million earlier this month, the very best stage since final November. When expanded to the previous month, the speed exceeded $55 million.
Two takeaways fall out of that set of numbers.
First, buyback depth has accelerated not too long ago. The 30-day determine implies a median of roughly $1.86 million per day, whereas the 7-day determine implies $2.85 million per day, in keeping with a market that has turn out to be extra energetic and extra risky.
Second, the buybacks have been executed at progressively greater common costs over shorter home windows ($25.81 over 30 days versus $31.36 over the previous 24 hours), which inserts the broader level that HYPE demand is tightening as exercise rises.
Hyperliquid is widening the volatility floor space
Hyperliquid’s important worth positive aspects even have robust product catalysts which might be simple to miss when you solely monitor worth.
The protocol is successfully widening the “volatility floor space” it might probably seize by transferring past customary crypto property into Actual World Property (RWAs) and permissionless markets, a method unlocked by its current HIP-3 improve.
HIP-3 made Hyperliquid extra permissionless on listings, permitting the protocol to assist builder-deployed perpetual markets. These deployers should preserve 500,000 staked HYPE and are topic to slashing by way of a validator vote within the occasion of malicious operation.
That stake requirement serves as a direct token sink and imposes a “price of entry” for builders in search of to quickly checklist markets.
This infrastructure enabled the platform’s speedy enlargement into commodities. Milk Highway, a crypto commentary platform, famous that this pattern deserves far more consideration than it’s getting.
The agency attributed HYPE’s rally to this integration of RWAs, noting that Hyperliquid has captured 2% of the world’s major silver market regardless of itemizing the metallic roughly 30 days in the past.
Milk Highway described this quantity as “INSANE,” emphasizing that silver buying and selling quantity signifies that the HYPE token can thrive somewhat than merely survive the market downturn.
Information from Flowscan present that cumulative open curiosity throughout HIP-3 DEXs has exceeded $28 billion.
New competitor towards Polymarket?
In the meantime, the most recent narrative tailwind is HIP-4, which introduces outcome-style, event-based markets.
Hyperliquid acknowledged that HIP-4 will introduce totally collateralized contracts that settle inside fastened ranges. These are positioned as prediction-market-like devices and limited-risk, options-style constructions designed to keep away from margin calls and liquidation cascades.
Based on the agency:
“Outcomes convey non-linearity, dated contracts, and another type of by-product buying and selling that doesn’t contain leverage or liquidations. The end result primitive expands the expressivity of HyperCore, whereas composing with different primitives comparable to portfolio margin and the HyperEVM.”
Information from Santiment signifies that the group seems to be hyped about Hyperliquid rolling out HIP-4. The agency famous that current worth motion means that group expectations concerning new derivatives and prediction markets may appeal to further quantity.
Notably, discussions of HIP-4 have additionally included comparisons with current prediction platforms.
DeFi analyst Ignas mentioned Hyperliquid’s HIP-4 is notable as a result of if outcomes compose with perps, a dealer can lengthy ETH and purchase an ‘ETH under $2,000′ final result as a hedge, inflicting their margin to drop as a result of the positions offset one another.
Based on him, opponents comparable to Polymarket and Kalshi can not do that.
Moreover, he famous that Hyperliquid’s permissionless deployment may confer benefits, because the platform permits anybody to create markets, whereas upcoming rivals comparable to Polymarket don’t assist this function.
HYPE faces an impending headwind
Regardless of the bullish structural arguments, HYPE faces a big check this week.
Information from Tokenomist signifies that the following Hyperliquid unlock is scheduled for Feb. 6 and can launch 9.92 million HYPE to core contributors, which is roughly $335 million at current costs.
That is the place the “mechanical bid” narrative meets actual market construction. If Hyperliquid Perps generates roughly $68.42 million in 30-day income, the unlock’s notional worth is roughly 4.9 occasions the month-to-month run price.
That doesn’t imply the buyback loop can not deal with it. It means the trail issues. If unlocked holders promote aggressively and shortly, the market can hole down even with regular buybacks, particularly if broader danger urge for food stays weak.
Nevertheless, if promoting is staggered or volatility retains volumes elevated, buybacks can act as a stabilizer, turning “unlock worry” right into a buy-the-dip setup for merchants.
But when the broader market volatility collapses because the macroeconomic backdrop calms and merchants step away, the buyback yield declines, and HYPE begins buying and selling extra like an ordinary danger asset once more.
