Grayscale entered the ring on Wednesday with its own Hyperliquid linked exchange-traded fund, setting a new low for fees as competition intensifies among firms rolling out similar products.
The Grayscale Hyperliquid Staking ETF, with the ticker symbol HYPG, debuted on Nasdaq, the firm said in a statement. The ETF has a sponsor fee of 0.29%, lower than its competitors. Bitwise's BHYP Hyperliquid ETF, which has a 0% fee for the first month and thereafter a 0.34% fee, and 21Shares' THYP has a fee of 0.30%.
Grayscale said its ETF is the "most cost-efficient way for investors to access exposure to HYPE through an exchange-traded product," in the statement.
Hyperliquid is a decentralized derivatives exchange that lets users trade perpetual futures onchain. Hyperliquid's native token, called (HYPE), has grown to be the tenth largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $15.8 billion, according to The Block's price data.
Perpetuals, or perps, have become increasingly popular in crypto derivatives trading. They are a type of futures contract that don't have an expiration date and allow people to bet on the price movement of assets without owning them directly.
Zach Pandl, head of research at Grayscale, called Hyperliquid the "breakout success story of this cycle in crypto," in part because of its technology, users, and revenue.
"This is the type of project that many investors in crypto have been looking for, for a period of time, something that really maximizes the value of blockchain technology with transparency and a self-custody model that delivers great benefits to users, that accrues revenue and that delivers that revenue back to token holders," Pandl said in an interview with The Block.
Last week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission opened the door for perpetual contracts, allowing crypto and prediction market heavyweights like Coinbase and Kalshi to launch related products for the first time in the United States. Pandl called that a "first step" towards bringing the platform to the U.S. Hyperliquid is not currently available to people in the U.S.
"The CFTC granted the first US-listed perpetual futures contract to Kalshi on Friday of last week, so we are beginning the process of giving real regulatory clarity around the product that Hyperliquid offers," Pandl said.
As for next steps, Pandl turned to the institutional adoption of crypto overall.
"The crypto industry is increasingly exporting its innovations to traditional markets," Pandl said. "The first two examples were stablecoins and tokenized assets — and the third example is perpetual futures."