The 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF, a new U.S. fund that holds HYPE, the token used by Hyperliquid, a decentralized crypto exchange for perpetual futures, logged $1.8 million in first-day trading volume and about $1.2 million in net inflows.
21Shares US, the American arm of crypto asset manager 21Shares, published the figures in a May 13 post on X.
The fund trades under the ticker THYP and seeks to track the performance of HYPE through the FTSE Hyperliquid Index, maintaining exposure to spot HYPE, meaning it's tied to the token itself rather than futures or swaps.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart called the debut "very solid" and "better than your average ETF launch," while adding that it was "nothing too crazy." He also said he expects Bitwise's Hyperliquid ETF to be the next launch.
- Grayscale is also moving forward with a rival HYPE fund. In a May 11 amended S-1 filing, the crypto asset manager said it plans to rename the product the Grayscale Hyperliquid Staking ETF, ticker HYPG, and added language allowing the trust to reflect HYPE earned from staking if the required conditions are met.
- 21Shares' THYP has a similar staking angle, with its product page saying the fund may reflect rewards from staking part of its HYPE and currently stakes a portion of its holdings.
Hyperliquid ETF starts small next to larger debuts
The launch of THYP was relatively small compared to the first day trading of bigger crypto ETFs.
In contrast, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market traded more than $4.6 billion in its first day in January 2024, according to figures by SoSoValue, meaning that the first day of trade of THYP with just about $1.8 million is 0.04% of Bitcoin ETF first day trade volume.
Spot Ethereum ETF trades amounted to $1 billion on its first day in July 2024, while Solana had a significantly larger first-day trade for its spot staking ETF as per Bitwise with $55.4 million.
However, this can't be considered directly comparable since Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana had already gained more exposure in terms of markets and investors before the launch of ETFs compared to HYPE.