"Biggest beneficiary of Middle East turmoil"…Wall Street takes note as Hyperliquid surges

The token price of Hyperliquid (HYPE), a global decentralized exchange (DEX), has continued its steep climb since the US airstrikes on Iran.

According to CoinMarketCap, a cryptocurrency market data site, Hyperliquid was trading in the $37 range on the 23rd. Compared with the $26 range on the 28th of last month, when the Iran war erupted, it is up more than about 40% in just a month.

Its market capitalization has topped $10 billion since mid-month, overtaking Cardano (ADA) and entering the top 10 by crypto market cap. It had hovered around the 20th place in the second half of last year, but its ranking jumped more than 10 spots in a single quarter.

The rally in Hyperliquid has been driven by the exchange’s "perpetual crude oil futures." As US strikes on Iran at the end of last month heightened oil-price volatility, investors piled into crude futures that can be traded 24 hours a day.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that "while traditional energy investors anxiously waited for Sunday’s futures market open, crypto investors were already betting on the direction of oil prices."

Trading volume in Hyperliquid’s crude oil futures has remained elevated through recently. According to crypto data analytics firm Kaiko and others, daily volume in Hyperliquid’s WTI perpetual futures was tallied at about $210 million as of the day, more than 28 times the $7.45 million recorded on the 28th of last month immediately after the US strikes on Iran.

Meanwhile, spurred by Hyperliquid, crypto exchanges appear to be accelerating their push into traditional asset classes. Binance, a global centralized exchange (CEX), has listed a series of perpetual futures contracts for precious metals such as gold and silver. TradeXYZ, which supports trading of real-world asset (RWA)-based derivatives on Hyperliquid, recently obtained a license to launch S&P 500 index-based perpetual futures.

In a report, global investment bank JPMorgan said that "demand for trading traditional assets during off-hours is boosting interest in decentralized exchanges such as Hyperliquid," adding that they are "using 24-hour trading services to exploit gaps in existing markets." It also said it expects "this trend to keep expanding and likely spread to other assets as well."

Jung Ji-sung, a research fellow at Korbit Research Center, said, "Perpetual futures offer multiple conveniences—24-hour trading seven days a week and leverage support—making them an attractive product (for investors)," adding that "any asset with investor demand could potentially be traded as a perpetual future."