Key Takeaways
- Bitwise staked 1.775 million HYPE worth roughly $114 million on Hyperliquid, per Lookonchain.
- The firm runs the Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP), which launched on NYSE Arca on May 15.
- BHYP directs 10% of its fees to buying and staking HYPE, tying the fund’s growth to protocol revenue.
A $114 Million Onchain Bet
Bitwise moved 1.775 million HYPE, the native token of the Hyperliquid exchange, into the protocol and staked it. At current prices, the deposit is worth roughly $114 million, marking one of the firm’s largest single additions to its Hyperliquid holdings to date.
Staking on Hyperliquid is not a conventional inflation-based reward scheme since all of the incentives are funded by actual protocol revenue, with the fees traders pay to use the platform redistributed to those who stake the token. That structure ties Bitwise’s yield directly to how much business the exchange does, rather than to new token issuance.
The deposit builds on a position the manager has been accumulating for weeks, with Bitcoin.com News reporting earlier purchases, including a single buy of 77,097 HYPE worth about $5.18 million, as the firm steadily converted fund inflows into staked tokens.
How the ETF Feeds the Position
The accumulation is tied to a product given Bitwise runs the Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP), which began trading on NYSE Arca on May 15. It is one of the first U.S. spot Hyperliquid exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to offer in-house staking through its Bitwise Onchain Solutions division.
The fund is designed to channel part of its revenue back into the toke with Bitwise directing 10% of BHYP’s management fees toward buying and staking HYPE on its own balance sheet, creating a feedback loop in which fund demand translates into onchain accumulation. The ETF debuted with the largest opening day for a U.S. spot altcoin fund this year, triggering a short squeeze that lifted HYPE around 5%.
That mechanism helps explain the size of the latest stake because, as assets in BHYP grow, the share of fees routed into HYPE grows with them, giving the firm a structural reason to keep adding to its position rather than treating each purchase as a one-off trade.
A Crowded Race for Hyperliquid Exposure
Bitwise is not alone in chasing Hyperliquid as 21shares, with its THYP product, and Grayscale, which has entered the HYPE ETF competition with a Nasdaq listing plan, are also vying for a slice of the same market. Not only that, spot HYPE ETFs collectively logged one of the strongest altcoin debuts on record, absorbing a meaningful share of the token’s circulating supply within their first weeks.
The competition has highlighted how quickly Hyperliquid has moved from a niche derivatives venue to a mainstream institutional target. With HYPE’s market value in the billions, even small allocations from regulated funds can translate into large onchain flows, as Bitwise’s $114 million stake illustrates.
In any case, the firm’s growing pile of staked HYPE is now a public signal of that conviction, and rivals racing to launch competing products suggest the contest for Hyperliquid exposure is only beginning.
