HYPE jumps nearly 19% as Trump-linked CFTC onshoring signal reaches markets
HYPE rose from about $58.92 to $70.09 in the latest 24-hour data window as a report about President Donald Trump and the CFTC revived expectations of a U.S. path for Hyperliquid. No approval has been announced.
By The Third AnglePublished Updated 3 min read
Illustrative market imagery; it does not depict Hyperliquid, HYPE or a CFTC trading venue. Photo: Unsplash · Unsplash License
HYPE rose nearly 19% in the latest 24-hour market-data window, moving from about $58.92 at 20:00 UTC on Tuesday to roughly $70.09 at 19:59 UTC on Wednesday, according to CoinGecko's hourly data. The move put the native token of Hyperliquid, one of the largest onchain perpetual-futures venues, back at the center of the U.S. market-access debate.
The immediate catalyst was a market-news alert from FirstSquawk saying President Donald Trump had said CFTC Chairman Michael Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States. The alert circulated without a publicly accessible transcript in the sources reviewed for this report, so the wording is attributed to the alert rather than presented as a verified Trump quotation.
A later Bitcoin.com market report says HYPE reached about $82 and gained 38% over the week while a Multicoin-linked wallet moved 308,884 HYPE, worth roughly $19.8 million, to Coinbase Prime on Aug. 20. It also reports later transfers of 172,710 HYPE and 62,700 HYPE. A separate market account reported the 308,884-HYPE transfer, but neither report establishes that the deposits were sales or that they caused a price move. The update adds a large-holder supply signal to the regulatory narrative; it does not establish U.S. approval or a completed Hyperliquid launch.
Selig made the point more directly during April testimony to the House Agriculture Committee, where he described offshore perpetual markets such as Hyperliquid as outside comprehensive CFTC supervision and said the agency wanted to bring those markets under U.S. regulation. That is a policy objective, not a finding that Hyperliquid has been registered or approved for U.S. retail trading.
A regulatory path is not a U.S. launch
Hyperliquid's current U.S. access restrictions remain the central caveat. A Bitwise filing with the SEC says the website interface made available by the Hyperliquid Foundation is not available to restricted persons, including people and entities located in the United States. It also notes that the underlying network can be accessed through compatible wallets or applications, but that the official interface remains a primary entry point.
That distinction matters. A CFTC framework could eventually create a compliant route for some Hyperliquid-linked products, a regulated intermediary or a redesigned interface. It does not, by itself, make the existing permissionless venue available to every U.S. user, and no source reviewed for this report showed that such approval had already been granted.
The $200 billion figure needs context
The scale of the opportunity is substantial, but the often-repeated $200 billion figure is not a measure of U.S. traders waiting to enter. The Block reported in April that Hyperliquid's monthly perpetual-futures volume was approaching $200 billion in March, as the platform's share of global perpetual volume neared 6%. That was platform-wide activity and historical context, not a forecast of the volume a U.S. launch would unlock.
For HYPE holders, Wednesday's rally therefore prices a possibility rather than a completed regulatory event. The next hard evidence would be a CFTC filing, registration, exemptive order, approved U.S. venue or a formal Hyperliquid announcement describing how American users could participate under the new rules.
