Bitwise Moves Beyond Custody With $HYPE Allocation
@Bitwise is taking its exposure to Hyperliquid a step further. The crypto asset manager has announced it will allocate 10% of the management fees generated by its $BHYP ETF to purchase and hold $HYPE tokens directly on its corporate balance sheet. The move marks a deliberate shift from passive custody to active asset accumulation, making @Bitwise a direct participant in the network's value accrual rather than simply a conduit for investor exposure.
The $BHYP ETF began trading on the NYSE on May 15, 2026, carrying a 0.34% sponsor fee, waived for the first month on the fund's first $500 million in assets. The product is among the first spot Hyperliquid exchange-traded products in the United States and the first to include in-house staking through Bitwise Onchain Solutions.
Aligning With Hyperliquid's Buy-and-Burn Model
The treasury strategy directly mirrors the economic design of the @HyperliquidX protocol itself. Under the protocol's buyback-and-burn mechanism, 99% of trading fees are used to purchase $HYPE tokens, which are then permanently destroyed. Since January 2026, approximately $645 million has been spent on buybacks, with roughly 43.6 million HYPE tokens incinerated. By routing a portion of its own fee income into $HYPE, @Bitwise is effectively compounding its alignment with that same supply-reduction flywheel.
The timing is notable. Hyperliquid saw $2.9 trillion in trading volume in 2025, an increase of more than 400% from the prior year, and the platform commands approximately 60% of all onchain derivative open interest globally. $HYPE has become the tenth-largest crypto asset worldwide, with a market cap above $11 billion after less than two years of trading.
The balance sheet accumulation decision signals that @Bitwise views $HYPE not simply as a product to wrap and distribute to clients, but as a long-term asset worth holding at the firm level. It also reinforces the broader institutional momentum building around Hyperliquid, at a moment when wallets linked to Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) acquired nearly $67.5 million worth of $HYPE in the weeks leading up to the ETF launches.
Sources
Bitwise Investments: Bitwise Launches Spot Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP)
PR Newswire: Bitwise Launches Spot Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP)
The Motley Fool: Hyperliquid (HYPE) Could Soon Be Bigger Than Cardano
