Hyperliquid’s HYPE token has posted a sharp 50% rally, leaving bitcoin, ether and the broader crypto market trailing.

Crypto’s early identity as a challenger to traditional finance has steadily faded over the past decade. What began as a parallel financial system has increasingly absorbed the tools and structures of legacy markets, from futures and options to exchange-traded funds.

That convergence is now playing out natively on decentralized platforms—and the recent surge in Hyperliquid’s HYPE token is a case in point.

According to Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Nasdaq-listed Hyperion DeFi, the rally reflects the merging of crypto and traditional asset markets under the broader trend of tokenization. Hyperion DeFi is the first U.S. public company to build a long-term strategic treasury position in HYPE, holding more than 1.4 million tokens as of late last year.

HYPE climbed above $34 this week, gaining more than 50%. Over the same period, bitcoin rose just 1.84%, ether lagged, and the CoinDesk 20 Index gained a little over 4%, according to CoinDesk data.

“This is ultimately a story about asset-class convergence,” Jung said. “Tokenization is pulling more and more of global finance on-chain, and Hyperliquid is where much of that activity is happening.”

Hyperliquid initially launched as a decentralized exchange for crypto perpetual futures. Since then, it has expanded to support trading in equity indices, individual stocks, commodities and major fiat currency pairs.

That shift followed the rollout of Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal-3 (HIP-3) in October 2025, which allows anyone staking 500,000 HYPE tokens to create markets linked to non-crypto assets.

The timing proved fortuitous. Volatility in traditional markets—particularly precious metals—has surged since late 2025, driving strong trading volumes and fee generation on Hyperliquid. The platform’s silver-USDC market alone recorded more than $1 billion in trading volume over the past 24 hours.

Growth across HIP-3 markets has been rapid. “Within just three months of the upgrade, HIP-3 markets surpassed $1 billion in open interest, generated roughly $25 billion in total trading volume, and more than $3 million in fees, all transparently on-chain,” Jung said. He added that users globally can now access equities—especially in regions where U.S. markets are difficult to reach—or gain exposure to the recent metals rally.

Rising fee revenue feeds directly into HYPE’s token economics. Hyperliquid operates an automated buyback-and-burn program that uses up to 97% of protocol fees to repurchase HYPE tokens and remove them permanently from circulation.

“It’s a deflationary structure that doesn’t exist elsewhere in the blockchain ecosystem and creates a powerful long-term tailwind for our treasury,” Jung said.

He also pointed to Hyperliquid’s always-on trading model as a differentiator, allowing traders to respond to global developments in real time and enabling price discovery beyond traditional market hours, including weekends.