Hyperliquid’s Open Interest Hits a Record, but HYPE Keeps Sliding

Hyperliquid’s total open interest hit $11.07 billion on July 13, the highest level of 2026, according to data reported by Wu Blockchain, a crypto news account on X. Real-world-asset trading hit a record $3.6 billion the same day, overtaking Bitcoin as the exchange’s single biggest market. HYPE, the token built to capture that growth, has slipped below its mid-range chart support instead.

The split has opened just as a new rival, Robinhood Chain, briefly out-traded Hyperliquid on a wave of memecoin volume, and as regulators in Singapore and Washington start asking harder questions about who trades on the platform and how.

Open Interest Clears $11 Billion as Real-World Assets Overtake Bitcoin

The $11.07 billion figure marks Hyperliquid’s highest open interest reading of the year, though it later eased to roughly $10.88 billion, according to numbers CoinGabbar attributed to the on-chain data aggregator DeFiLlama. A separate tracker, BitcoinWorld, put the peak marginally higher at $11.14 billion, a gap that reflects how fast the number moves rather than any real dispute about the trend.

Three figures tell the story of where that money is going.

• $11.07 billion, Hyperliquid’s total open interest on July 13, its highest level in 2026.
• $3.69 billion, the share of that total coming from HIP-3 markets, short for Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal 3, the permissionless framework that lets outside builders launch their own perpetual futures markets.
• $3.6 billion, the record high in real-world-asset (RWA) open interest, which has now overtaken Bitcoin as the platform’s largest single trading category, according to Blockworks data cited by Stocktwits.

HIP-3 is doing more than adding volume. Traders have used it to bet on tokenized equities, commodities and even pre-IPO names; open interest tied to SpaceX-linked perpetuals topped $250 million around a single mid-June session, according to a Talos report carried by Yahoo Finance. Smaller platforms are plugging into that pipeline too. The Turkish exchange Paribu recently added Hyperliquid perpetuals and Polymarket access to its app, widening the on-ramp for retail traders outside the US.

The Mid-Range Floor Gives Way

None of that record-setting activity has kept the token in positive territory. HYPE was changing hands near $64, down about 2.6% on the day, according to CoinGabbar’s July 13 update, and Stocktwits described retail sentiment on its platform as sitting in “extremely bearish” territory even as chatter about the token stayed low.

The chart backs that mood up. A range between roughly $53.30 and $74.60 has held since early June, and HYPE has now dropped beneath the $64 mid-range support that sat in the middle of it. Money-flow indicators that supported the token’s spring rally have flipped in recent sessions. The Chaikin Money Flow (CMF), a gauge of buying and selling pressure, reads near negative 0.14, pointing to sustained capital outflows. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) has formed a bearish crossover below its zero line, a signal that downward momentum is building rather than fading.

A handful of levels now matter more than the rest.

• $64, the mid-range support HYPE has already fallen beneath.
• $60, a round-number level that could offer a shorter-term bounce.
• $53 to $54, the lower edge of the range in place since early June, and the zone swing traders are watching for an entry.
• $32.56 to $42.05, the longer-range “golden pocket” measured off the broader rally from $20.48, a much deeper retracement that remains distant for now.

The stakes below that range are concrete. A slide under $53 would trigger roughly 1.8 million HYPE in forced long liquidations, worth about $131.7 million, based on CoinGlass data cited by Sherwood News. The all-time high of $76.70, logged in mid-June according to CoinGecko, remains the level nothing has managed to reclaim since.

Robinhood Chain’s Memecoin Wave Muddies the Rivalry

Complicating the picture further is a brand-new competitor. Robinhood Chain, the brokerage’s Ethereum layer-2 network built on Arbitrum’s stack, posted $375.15 million in 24-hour decentralized exchange (DEX) volume on July 10, edging out Hyperliquid’s $198.87 million for that day, according to DeFiLlama data reported by The Crypto Times.

The volume that pushed Robinhood Chain ahead came almost entirely from speculation, not the tokenized stocks the network was built to host. Viral memecoin launches such as CashCat, along with tokens like Dog In Hood and TENDIES, drove most of the swaps, according to reporting from RWA Times. Robinhood Chain currently runs on a single sequencer, meaning Robinhood itself controls transaction ordering rather than a decentralized validator set, a structural difference from Hyperliquid that critics have flagged as a centralization risk.

Some analysts see the competitive threat running in the other direction. Tulip King, a former Messari researcher, said on X that he views crypto-native rivals like Hyperliquid as posing a serious long-term challenge to Robinhood’s own business, even as he remains bullish on Robinhood’s broader strategy. Bankless co-founder David Hoffman countered that Robinhood’s retail relationships give it a moat decentralized platforms may struggle to copy.

Why Are Regulators Circling Hyperliquid?

Regulatory scrutiny of Hyperliquid has picked up on two continents at once, adding pressure just as the token’s chart weakens. Singapore’s Monetary Authority (MAS) added the Hyper Foundation website and the Hyperliquid trading app to its Investor Alert List on June 26, according to CryptoRank’s tracking of the announcement. Hyperliquid responded that it has never claimed to be licensed or authorized by MAS.

In the US, CME Group and ICE have reportedly asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and congressional staff to take a closer look at Hyperliquid, warning that its decentralized perpetuals structure could open the door to market manipulation and sanctions evasion, according to CoinDesk. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has taken a different tone, praising Hyperliquid’s no-KYC trading model even as he acknowledged the legal exposure that comes with skipping know-your-customer (KYC) checks.

Hyperliquid has tried to get ahead of the pressure, announcing a $29 million investment in the Hyperliquid Policy Center to help build a clearer regulatory path for decentralized finance in the US. That has not settled every doubt. Motley Fool writer Lyle Daly has pointed to Hyperliquid’s list of just 30 validators, a fraction of Ethereum’s several hundred thousand, as a sign that a small team still holds outsized control over the chain. On-chain analysts previously linked wallets tied to North Korean hackers to trades on the platform in late 2024, and in March 2025 the Hyperliquid team intervened after a trader tried to manipulate a small listing called JELLY.

The Buyback Engine Keeps Absorbing Supply

Set against the regulatory noise is a mechanical bull case that has held up so far. Hyperliquid routes roughly 99% of its trading fees into an Assistance Fund that buys HYPE on the open market, according to Tokenomist data. That fund reportedly held about 4.6 times the value of the July 6 token unlock, when 9.92 million HYPE, worth around $645 million and equal to roughly 1% of total supply, was released to core contributors, per BeInCrypto’s reporting.

A deal with Coinbase and Circle adds another layer. Ninety percent of the interest earned on the US Treasuries backing USDC balances held on Hyperliquid now flows into the buyback pool, an arrangement Motley Fool estimated could add $137 million to $160 million a year given almost $6 billion in USDC sitting on the chain. Cumulative buybacks have already retired roughly 4.7% of HYPE’s maximum supply, and the mechanism is part of what one internal look at Hyperliquid’s tokenomics described as a buyback model rewiring how crypto investors value tokens.

Institutional access is widening at the same time. Bitwise’s BHYP and 21Shares’ THYP, the first US spot HYPE exchange-traded funds (ETFs), launched in mid-May and had drawn combined net inflows of more than $170 million by early July, according to BeInCrypto. HYPE also joined Bitwise’s 10 Crypto Index ETF following a monthly rebalance, taking a weight near 0.95%. The flows are not one-directional. SoSoValue data cited by Stocktwits showed US spot HYPE ETFs recording a net outflow of $5.73 million on a Friday in early July, pulling cumulative net assets down to $350.65 million.

Where Does HYPE Go From Here?

HYPE remains up roughly 156% year to date despite the pullback, according to Stocktwits, and the disagreement over what happens next splits cleanly along the same lines as everything above.

• Arthur Hayes, BitMEX co-founder: targets $150 for HYPE by August 2026, calling its buyback the strongest fee-sharing mechanism he has seen in crypto, and rebuilt his position after briefly exiting it in early June.
• Motley Fool’s Lyle Daly: says he will not invest, citing validator concentration and the platform’s history of overriding an exploit as reasons for caution.
• CME Group and ICE: have pushed regulators to examine whether Hyperliquid’s structure invites manipulation, a question still unresolved.

For now, the chart is doing the talking. HYPE sits under $64, with $53 to $54 waiting below it and $76.70 still standing as the level nothing has managed to reclaim since mid-June.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is HIP-3 and Why Does It Matter?

HIP-3, short for Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal 3, is the permissionless framework that lets any builder launch a perpetual futures market by staking 500,000 HYPE tokens as collateral. It is the mechanism behind Hyperliquid’s move into tokenized stocks, commodities and pre-IPO contracts, and it now accounts for more than a third of the exchange’s total open interest.

Is Robinhood Chain Actually Bigger Than Hyperliquid Now?

Not by the measures that matter most. Robinhood Chain’s $375.15 million day of DEX volume beat Hyperliquid’s, but Hyperliquid still held roughly $5.939 billion in total value locked (TVL) against Robinhood Chain’s $101.03 million, according to data reported by The Crypto Times. Robinhood Chain’s edge came almost entirely from memecoin trading rather than the tokenized stocks it was designed to host.

What Happens if HYPE Breaks Back Above Its Old High?

A rally past $100 would trigger the liquidation of more than 3 million HYPE in leveraged short positions, worth roughly $221.5 million, according to CoinGlass data cited by Sherwood News. That is larger than the estimated $131.7 million in long positions that would unwind if the price fell under $53.

When Is Hyperliquid’s Next Token Distribution?

A Q3 HYPE Ecosystem Distribution snapshot window runs from July 1 to August 15, with claims opening August 22 at 12:00 PM UTC, according to CoinGabbar’s reporting. That sits on top of the July 6 unlock of 9.92 million HYPE already released to core contributors.

Why Did HYPE Fall Even as Open Interest Hit a Record?

Traders pulled money out faster than the headline open interest numbers suggest. US spot HYPE ETFs recorded a net outflow of $5.73 million on the Friday before the open interest record, according to SoSoValue data cited by Stocktwits, even as the broader crypto market slipped alongside it and retail sentiment sat in “extremely bearish” territory the same day.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets, including HYPE, are highly volatile and speculative. Always consult a licensed financial professional and do your own research before making investment decisions. Figures in this article are accurate as of publication on July 14, 2026.