HYPE touched $69.97 on Saturday, the first time Hyperliquid’s token has ever traded that high. It’s up more than 67% on the month and still sitting near the top of its range, around $67 to $68. The HYPE price run has been one of the loudest large-cap moves of May, and for once the story underneath it isn’t just hype.
The ETF money showed up
Spot HYPE ETF products pulled in $100.48 million in net inflows through the month, per SoSoValue. Three straight positive weeks. It started small at $2.52 million on May 13, jumped to $72.38 million by May 22, then cooled to $25.57 million by May 28. The products crossed $100 million in cumulative inflows inside their first 10 trading sessions, which is quick. Bitwise has gone further, tying part of its model to the token itself by using 10% of its HYPE ETF fees to buy and hold HYPE on its own balance sheet, the same mispricing thesis it laid out earlier this month.
Buybacks funded by real revenue
This is the part that separates HYPE from most tokens that run. Hyperliquid routes a large share of its trading fees into buying back HYPE, and the revenue behind it is real. Protocol fees were running near $1.3 billion annualized by mid-2026. The buybacks come from platform activity, not new issuance or outside capital. It’s the model where 97% of Hyperliquid’s revenue flows back to holders. Busy trading feeds buyback pressure, and buyback pressure feeds the price.
The CFTC handed the model a tailwind
There’s a regulatory piece too. The CFTC approved the first US perpetual futures, the exact product Hyperliquid is built around. Traders read that as a door opening to a far larger market, and the timing lined up with the rally. Hyperliquid has been pushing into new territory anyway, recently launching the prediction-market product that fills the gap Polymarket left behind as bans spread across more countries.
One caution sits in the numbers. HYPE’s market cap is above $15 billion, but its fully diluted valuation is north of $65 billion on a 1 billion max supply. That gap between circulating value and full dilution is the kind of thing that bites when more tokens unlock down the road.
Where the chart sits now
HYPE broke out of a $40 to $45 consolidation and pushed into the $67 to $70 zone. The 9-day moving average near $62.52 is the first line bulls want to hold. Below that, $53.50 comes into view. The MACD is still positive, with the line above its signal, so momentum hasn’t rolled over. The next target traders are eyeing is $80. The move has been steep, though, and a daily close back under $62.50 would take some air out of it. For now the breakout holds, and the inflows haven’t stopped.
