Is Hyperliquid a Super App?

Beyond perpetual futures, @HyperliquidX supports spot trading, borrowing, lending, and a full Ethereum-compatible smart contract environment via HyperEVM, and now @Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan has a new label for it: "Super App."

Hougan has described Hyperliquid as one of the most compelling investment opportunities in crypto, arguing the platform plays a structural role in modern markets rather than being a passing trend. That view is backed by hard numbers. Hyperliquid recorded $2.9 trillion in trading volume in 2025, up more than 400% from the prior year, and commands roughly 60% of all onchain derivative open interest globally while processing approximately 200,000 orders per second.

The "Super App" designation also reflects the protocol's expansion beyond trading. Hyperliquid is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain built for onchain trading and decentralized finance, having grown from a derivatives venue into a broader sovereign ecosystem. The platform's total value locked stands above $2.4 billion.

Hougan pointed to a spike in geopolitical tensions earlier this year, when traditional financial markets were closed, as evidence of Hyperliquid's real-time pricing role. Bloomberg cited its crude oil contract as the most relevant price in the market at that moment.

Bitwise Places a Formal Bet on $HYPE

The "Super App" framing arrives alongside concrete institutional action. The Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF began trading on NYSE on May 15, 2026, under the ticker BHYP. It is among the first spot Hyperliquid ETPs in the U.S. and the first to offer in-house staking, with Bitwise staking the fund's $HYPE holdings through its in-house division, Bitwise Onchain Solutions.

The firm has gone a step further on the fee structure. Bitwise announced on May 18 that it will direct 10% of the management fees earned from BHYP toward buying $HYPE tokens for its own balance sheet, and will stake those holdings rather than hold them passively. The more BHYP's assets and fees grow, the more $HYPE Bitwise can accumulate under that rule.

A Crowded but Growing Market

$HYPE has risen to become the tenth-largest crypto asset in the world after less than two years of trading, with a market cap of over $11 billion. It is used for staking, governance, and ecosystem participation. Three issuers have now filed for spot Hyperliquid ETFs. Bitwise reached the NYSE first with BHYP, while Grayscale and 21Shares are also in the race, with VanEck also eyeing $HYPE-linked products.

Sources:
Bitwise Asset Management: Bitwise Launches Spot Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP)
PR Newswire: Bitwise Launches Spot Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP)
The Block: Bitwise to Add HYPE to Balance Sheet Using Fees from Hyperliquid ETF