Hyperliquid (HYPE) has become one of the most liquid trading platforms in the crypto market, attracting growing interest from hedge funds and institutional investors as capital shifts away from bitcoin and ether, according to Joshua Lim, global head of markets at FalconX.
The decentralized derivatives exchange, which launched its HYPE token last year, has become a significant source of trading activity for FalconX clients. Lim said demand for hyperliquid products has increased as investors seek opportunities beyond the largest cryptocurrencies.
“For things like HYPE, where there’s broad consensus that it’s an attributable asset, there’s a ton of liquidity. It’s not difficult to trade it,” Lim said in an interview. “HYPE is probably some days more active than Ethereum for us.”
Comments arrive in the form of bitcoin and ether (ETH) have struggled to attract new flows as investors focus on a smaller group of alternative crypto assets. Lim said FalconX expects major cryptocurrencies to remain range-bound over the coming months due to macroeconomic uncertainty, ETF outflows and competition from other speculative investments.
“This actually translates into implied volatility, so the options price is close to its all-time low,” Lim said. “People don’t think bitcoin and ether are going to move much.”
Instead, traders turned to assets tied to emerging themes such as artificial intelligence (AI) and decentralized trading infrastructure.
“Altcoins are moving a lot,” Lim said. “That’s where the hot money is going. It’s things like HYPE and Zcash (ZEC) and Venice (VVV). AI tokens work very well.”
The appeal of hyperliquid extends beyond its token. Lim said hedge funds are increasingly using the platform’s derivatives because they provide access to markets that are difficult or impossible to trade elsewhere.
“They’re very good at launching things early,” he said, pointing to Hyperliquid’s pre-IPO perpetual contracts tied to companies such as SpaceX. “We have hedge funds where there is no other way to really trade liquidly.”
The growing interest in Hyperliquid reflects a broader bet that crypto-native trading infrastructure can expand beyond digital assets. The platform generated around $800 million in revenue in 2025 and has gradually expanded its product range from crypto perpetual futures to tokenized stocks, commodities and prediction-style markets.
Grayscale argued that Hyperliquid’s long-term importance may lie less in the HYPE token itself than in its potential to serve as a 24/7 trading platform for a wide range of financial assets. Regulatory developments remain a major uncertainty, particularly because the platform currently restricts U.S. users, but supporters increasingly view Hyperliquide as a test case for how blockchain-based markets could compete with traditional exchanges in the future.
