Crypto fund flows are starting to fracture, with investors exiting bitcoin and ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) while rotating into alternative tokens such as Hyperliquid’s hype (HYPE) and XRP (XRP).
Bitcoin ETFs saw more than $1 billion in outflows last week, extending a sharp institutional pullback, while ether funds lost another $215 million, according to data source SoSoValue. The continued bleeding from the two largest assets signals a cooling appetite for broad, benchmark crypto exposure.
But the redemptions haven’t been uniform.
Spot products investing in Hyperliquid’s hype token, issued by Bitwise and 21Shares, attracted a combined $72.38 million, underscoring that capital is being redeployed with precision rather than exiting the market altogether. XRP and solana ETFs registered inflows worth $22 million and $15.6 million, respectively.
“The broader message: capital has not left crypto uniformly. It is rotating toward newer narratives and away from crowded large-cap exposure,” Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, said in an email.
Hype is real
The strong uptake for hype ETFs, which went live a week ago, coincides with a sharp rally in the token’s price and robust network activity.
The token has been on a tear, jumping from $38 to $63 in the past 10 days, CoinDesk data show. It has gained 59% for the month, a staggering performance compared with market leader bitcoin’s 1% gain.
Decentralized platform Hyperliquid has generated $13.2 million in fees over the past seven days, the fifth-largest tally, trailing stablecoin behemoths such as Tether and Circle Internet (CRCL) as well as launchpad Pump. Canton Network ranks fourth, though, according to DeFiLlama, that is largely driven by substantial incentives.
Hyperliquid’s revenue is expected to rise further, thanks to its recent agreement with Coinbase and Circle to integrate stablecoin USDC as a quote asset.
Some analysts say Hyperliquid is rapidly emerging as a challenger to traditional trading platforms and prediction markets. And for good reasons: Since the Iran war began in late February, the platform’s HIP-3 market has consistently handled millions in trading volume in perpetual futures tied to traditional and real-world assets (RWA) such as oil, gold and U.S. equity indexes.
“Hyperliquid fundamental metrics continue to strengthen across the board as HIP-3 markets reached new weekly highs at 2.6B in open interest across RWA perp markets. HIP-4 launched outcome markets a couple of weeks ago to more modest growth,” data tracking website Artemis said in the weekly newsletter.
“Equity perpetuals, pre-IPO markets and prediction markets are all in the very early innings, and Hyperliquid is well positioned to capitalize on that momentum,” Artemis said.