Hyperliquid’s HYPE token jumped 19.3% as President Donald Trump’s comments increased optimism around a potential regulatory route for the platform to operate legally in the US, though no approval has been issued.
HYPE rallied across Aug. 19 and Aug. 20 after Trump said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was working on a way to bring Hyperliquid into the US under a fully compliant framework.
CoinGecko data showed HYPE at roughly $71.90 on Aug. 20, representing gains of more than 23% over 24 hours and 26% over the past week. It ranked among the day’s strongest crypto performers, alongside Ethereum’s 18.5% advance, as the total crypto market cap climbed 7.5% overnight to $2.45 trillion.
Trump’s comments should not be interpreted as CFTC approval, registration or authorization for Hyperliquid to launch in the US. However, they have fueled expectations that on-chain perpetual futures could eventually gain a regulated pathway into the American market.
CFTC Innovation Meeting Puts Hyperliquid Under the Microscope
The CFTC’s inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting was set for Aug. 20 at 1 p.m. ET in Washington, with the panel tasked with exploring how financial rules should evolve alongside emerging technologies and digital asset markets.
Traders are paying close attention to any discussion of on-chain derivatives and regulatory models that could potentially apply to Hyperliquid.
Although the meeting and its broad innovation mandate have been confirmed, there is no evidence that the committee will approve a Hyperliquid-specific framework, grant permission for US operations or establish a launch date.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig has previously called on-chain markets potentially transformative and said the agency was looking at ways to create a compliant operating framework for them in the US.
Coinbase said Aug. 19 that qualifying Base App users would be able to trade more than 290 perpetual futures markets through Hyperliquid.
Depending on the asset, the platform offers leverage of up to 50x, with markets covering crypto assets, equities and commodities.
Hyperliquid supplies the trading, liquidity and on-chain settlement infrastructure, while Base App serves as the interface through which users access the markets.
The service is currently blocked in the US, UK, Canada and other regions where leveraged crypto derivatives are restricted. This highlights the gap between Hyperliquid’s current offshore offering and a potential regulated US operation.
Rising Open Interest Signals Growing HYPE Exposure
Total futures open interest reached approximately $3.01 billion on Aug. 20, increasing by $425.32 million, or 16.43%, over 30 days. Open interest had dropped to around $2.17 billion during the period before reaching a recent high close to $3.16 billion.
About $43.21 million worth of positions were liquidated over the previous 24 hours, with shorts responsible for roughly $37.86 million, or 87.6% of the total.
A simultaneous rise in price and open interest generally suggests traders are adding new positions. For HYPE, the data indicate that new speculative buying has combined with short sellers being forced out of their positions.
Funding remained positive across 152 of the previous 180 four-hour intervals. The latest funding rate was 0.0125% per four hours, compared with a 30-day average of 0.0038%. Binance’s account-level long-to-short ratio was approximately 1.8.
The positioning shows a clear bullish bias among traders. While that can help sustain an upward move, it also increases the potential for aggressive volatility if market sentiment turns negative.
HYPE Enters Crypto’s Top 10 by Market Cap
CoinGecko data placed HYPE’s market capitalization at approximately $16 billion, making it the 10th-largest cryptocurrency. Daily trading volume stood near $1.49 billion.
Regulatory optimism, the integration with Base App and heightened derivatives activity have combined to put Hyperliquid increasingly in focus within the perpetual-futures market.
Despite the optimism, there is still no confirmed CFTC authorization or approval for Hyperliquid to operate in the US. Any delay, regulatory clarification or reversal in expectations could therefore produce substantial volatility in HYPE.
