Grayscale launches lowest-fee U.S. Hyperliquid ETF as competition heats up around HYPE

• Grayscale said Wednesday it launched the Grayscale Hyperliquid Staking ETF (HYPG) on Nasdaq with a 0.29% sponsor fee, undercutting rival Hyperliquid funds from 21Shares and Bitwise.
• HYPG seeks to provide exposure to the HYPE token while generating additional returns through staking, with Grayscale citing historical staking rewards of about 2.2% annually, the company said.
• The new fund highlights rising institutional interest in Hyperliquid, a high-revenue decentralized finance protocol whose fee-driven token buyback model is seen by some analysts as a key building block for on-chain market infrastructure.

Grayscale said Wednesday it launched a Hyperliquid (HYPE) exchange-traded product (ETP) with the lowest fee among its U.S.-listed competitors, escalating a price war in one of crypto's newest and fastest-growing ETF categories.

The asset manager announced the Grayscale Hyperliquid Staking ETF (HYPG) on Nasdaq, disclosing a 0.29% sponsor fee and confirming the ticker HYPG. The fee undercuts rival Hyperliquid products from both 21Shares and Bitwise and marks the first meaningful fee competition in the emerging market for HYPE investment products.

21Shares' Hyperliquid ETF, THYP, began trading on Nasdaq on May 12 with a 0.30% expense ratio. Bitwise's BHYP launched three days later on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with a promotional 0% fee for its first month but will rise to 0.34%. On a normalized basis, Grayscale's 0.29% fee is now the lowest among the three offerings.

The rapid emergence of multiple Hyperliquid funds reflects growing investor interest in the protocol behind the HYPE token. Hyperliquid began as a decentralized perpetual futures exchange but has expanded into a broader blockchain ecosystem that supports smart contracts, tokenized assets and new financial markets.

Unlike traditional crypto ETFs that simply hold an underlying asset, HYPG is designed to generate additional returns through staking. The fund will seek exposure to HYPE while participating in the network's staking process, allowing investors to capture staking rewards through the ETF structure. Grayscale said HYPE staking rewards have historically averaged about 2.2% annually.

The launch comes as Hyperliquid has emerged as one of the most closely watched projects in decentralized finance. According to Grayscale, the protocol generated approximately $857 million in revenue during 2025, making it one of the highest-earning applications in crypto.

Much of investor interest has centered on Hyperliquid's economic model. Grayscale said roughly 99% of protocol fees are directed toward token buybacks, a mechanism supporters argue links network usage directly to HYPE's value accrual.

"The launch of HYPG on Nasdaq reflects our conviction that Hyperliquid represents something genuinely differentiated in the digital asset landscape, a protocol built to support onchain trading and market activity at scale," Krista Lynch, Grayscale's senior vice president of capital markets, said in a statement.

The fund's debut adds another sign that institutional investors are increasingly looking beyond bitcoin and ether toward crypto-native infrastructure projects that generate revenue and resemble traditional financial networks. Hyperliquid's growth in perpetual futures trading, combined with its expansion into tokenized assets and other financial products, has led some analysts to view it as a potential building block for a broader onchain market infrastructure.

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