$HYPE This wave of explosive growth has ended; is it driven by news-driven pump-and-dump, or is a change in fundamentals that has decided the continuation of a trend?

Let's do a simple analysis,
First,
1. Deep collaboration with Coinbase and Circle (the core fundamental positive news)
Hyperliquid recently announced new AQAv2 regulations, declaring USDC as the platform’s only aligned quote asset.
Repurchase and burn volume soared: Previously used stablecoin USDH was gradually shut down. Under the new regulations, Coinbase promised to transfer 90% of the profits generated from the $5 billion USDC reserves circulating on Hyperliquid to the protocol treasury, specifically for repurchasing and burning HYPE.
Revenue structure underwent a qualitative change: This move will inject a stable cash flow of $500k to $160 million annually into the protocol, instantly increasing daily repurchase volume by about 26%, greatly strengthening HYPE’s anti-cyclical deflationary capacity.
Giant pledge locking: Futu NiuNiu reported that Coinbase and Circle will each be required to stake 500k HYPE as performance guarantees, and Coinbase also announced a significant increase in its HYPE staking position.
2. Systematic upgrade of compliance narrative
As the U.S. “CLARITY Act” progresses in review, offshore DeFi protocols face more stringent legal responsibility definitions. [1] As an offshore PerpDEX, Hyperliquid’s deep business ties with the largest compliant U.S. exchange Coinbase and the largest compliant stablecoin issuer Circle are equivalent to pre-locking compliance cards in terms of regulation.
3. Traditional finance channels opened: the first Hyperliquid ETF listed
4. Business data outperforms the entire network, with protocol revenue topping the dedicated chain’s siphoning effect recently manifesting. According to the latest weekly data from The Block, Hyperliquid’s active futures trading generated $11 million in weekly fee income. This figure accounts for 43% of the total transaction fees across major blockchain networks, not only ranking first but also directly surpassing Ethereum ($3 million) and Solana ($2 million) in the same period.
Now, a technical explanation—though most retail investors may not like to read it, I like to study this stuff.
In the AQAv2 regulations, Hyperliquid has reached a tripartite cooperation with two giants, Coinbase and Circle.
These two companies have clear divisions of labor, each playing different technical and capital roles, jointly promoting USDC as Hyperliquid’s sole aligned quote asset.
1. Coinbase’s role: Treasury Deployer
Core responsibility: Coinbase officially becomes the official treasury deployer of USDC on Hyperliquid. It manages on-platform deposits (such as US Treasuries) and returns about 90% of the reserve profits (roughly $500k annually) to the protocol treasury for HYPE buybacks.
Asset acquisition: Coinbase also invested in acquiring the brand assets of the original native stablecoin USDH, helping USDH gradually exit, thereby unifying liquidity entirely into USDC.
2. Circle’s role: Technical Deployer
Core responsibility: As the parent company of USDC, Circle acts as the technical and infrastructure deployer in AQAv2.
Technical support: Circle provides native cross-chain transfer protocols (CCTP) and minting/redeeming infrastructure, ensuring USDC’s multi-chain transfer and capital efficiency between HyperEVM and other blockchains.
3. Mutual commitments: Locking and staking
According to on-chain rules of AQAv2, both the capital deployment party (Coinbase) and the technical deployment party (Circle) must follow strict alignment mechanisms: both giants are required to forcibly stake 500k HYPE tokens each as performance guarantees to activate the AQAv2 framework.
In short, this is a comprehensive “Coinbase pays profit sharing + Circle provides cross-chain technology” encirclement, jointly transforming Hyperliquid into a super network where USDC enjoys the highest profit sharing in DeFi.
Why has such a milestone event in crypto finance history—“channel reverse taxation”—happened?
In the past, stablecoin issuers (like Circle) were absolute on-chain overlords, earning interest from user deposits in U.S. Treasuries, while underlying protocols often had to cater to them for liquidity.
Hyperliquid’s ability to force Coinbase and Circle to give up 90% of profits and pledge HYPE mainly relies on these three “game-changing” strengths:
1. “Nuclear button” deterrence: The direct trigger was the self-developed stablecoin USDH. Hyperliquid launched USDH in 2025.
Direct deprivation of interests: Funds locked in USDH bypass Circle to earn interest, with 100% profit-sharing to HYPE holders.
Big players’ panic: At that time, Hyperliquid held $5 billion in deposits, over 95% of which was USDC. If all $5 billion were converted to USDH, Circle and Coinbase would lose about $200 million annually in U.S. Treasury interest spreads.
Spending to prevent disaster: To prevent this lucrative chunk from completely slipping away, Coinbase chose to concede, buying out USDH’s brand assets and offering a 90% discount to restore USDC as the platform’s only official asset.
2. Terrifying “traffic monopoly” and super channel influence
In business, when retail channels become large enough, they can reverse dictate upstream suppliers’ profits (like Costco squeezing suppliers).
Hyperliquid in on-chain derivatives has become such a super channel:
Data gap first: Hyperliquid monopolizes a huge share of the decentralized perpetual contract (Perp DEX) market, with its dedicated chain’s weekly fees even surpassing Ethereum and Solana combined.
High sticky capital: The $5 billion isn’t dead money in wallets but high-frequency trading margins circulating around the clock. Circle realizes that without Hyperliquid’s terminal scenario, USDC’s on-chain usage and market share would suffer a significant downgrade.
3. Awakening of network sovereignty
This event marks a fundamental change in the underlying logic of crypto—stablecoins are no longer solely owned by issuers but belong to the network that deposits them.
In the past, general L1/L2s like Ethereum, Solana, or Arbitrum, due to dispersed ecosystem applications, couldn’t form a united front to negotiate with Circle.
Hyperliquid, as a “application-as-chain” (app-chain), where the chain is the exchange and the exchange is the chain, has a highly unified network will.
It uses the sovereignty of an entire main chain to negotiate with Circle, forcing giants to accept “those who follow me prosper” on-chain customization rules.
As the founder of Native Markets (USDH development team) said in his departure letter, this is “Hyperliquid’s greatest victory so far.” It breaks the traditional stablecoin “taxation in, no out” model, pushing the entire industry into a new era where “the network channel speaks for itself.”
Final comprehensive summary,
This AQAv2 positive is not just a “one-day hype” driven by news, but a systematic, permanent “long-term fundamental rewrite” of HYPE.

Before AQAv2, HYPE was more valued as a high-growth, high-trading-volume governance token of a Perp DEX (similar to dYdX or GMX); after this regulation, HYPE’s underlying economic model, moat, and ecosystem position have undergone a qualitative transformation:

1. Valuation anchor’s transformation: from “cyclical fee income” to “risk-free U.S. debt interest”
Past pain point: HYPE’s value was entirely tied to “trading fees.” In a deep crypto bear market, total network trading volume shrinks, protocol income plummets, and HYPE faces a double whammy of valuation decline.
Current change: Even if the market turns bearish and trading stalls, as long as the $5 billion USDC collateral remains on the platform, Coinbase’s promised profit-sharing of 90% of U.S. debt interest (about $150 million annually) is a fixed “passive rigid income.” This gives HYPE a resilience similar to high-dividend utility stocks.
2. “Buyback and burn” becomes a perpetual deflation engine
This roughly $150 million annual rigid fund is automatically and mandatorily used on-chain for HYPE buybacks and burns.
This daily, non-dependent on retail investors, and directly paid by traditional financial giants’ treasuries, creates a long-term, substantial rigid buy support for HYPE’s market. As the total token supply decreases, the value per token will be permanently elevated.
3. Ecosystem moat evolves into “compliance privilege”
In the past, the biggest sword of Damocles for DeFi protocols was “regulation.” As an offshore derivatives platform, Hyperliquid faced constant compliance risks.
Now, with Circle and Coinbase—two of the top compliant giants in the U.S.—each pledging 500k HYPE to stay in Hyperliquid and earn the remaining 10% interest, and to maintain USDC’s market share, they have deeply bonded their interests with Hyperliquid.
This grants Hyperliquid a compliance shield that other protocols cannot match in the face of future U.S. regulation (like the CLARITY Act).
4. Fully establishing the “application chain (app-chain)” as a superior form over “general chains”
This game proves to the entire industry: a dedicated chain with high-frequency clearing flow can reverse tax the stablecoin issuers.
Ethereum or Solana, due to dispersed users and protocols, cannot form a unified will to force Circle to pay profits. Hyperliquid has successfully set this precedent, demonstrating its ecosystem’s monopoly status as an “on-chain settlement hub.”
Any future mainstream asset entering this network must be prepared for being taxed and feeding back to HYPE.

If earlier HYPE was like a “brokerage firm that could collapse due to industry downturns,” now HYPE has transformed into a “monopoly of core traffic, able to collect taxes from the Fed’s interest rate spreads like a digital central bank.”
This shift in logic directly raises HYPE’s long-term valuation ceiling over the next 3 to 5 years.