- 21Shares listed the first spot Hyperliquid ETF (THYP) on Nasdaq, offering regulated exposure to HYPE and integrated staking rewards.
- The firm also launched a leveraged 2x ETF, TXXH, targeting investors with higher risk tolerance.
- Hyperliquid has become a major on-chain venue for perpetual futures, with strong volumes and dominant open interest in DeFi.
- The products include low management fees, institutional-grade custody and detailed risk disclosures around volatility and staking.
The arrival of 21Shares’ Hyperliquid products on Nasdaq marks a new step in the crossover between on-chain derivatives and the traditional ETF market in the United States. With the debut of the 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF under the ticker THYP, U.S. investors now have access to a spot vehicle that tracks HYPE, the native token of the Hyperliquid protocol, through a familiar listed format.
What stands out is that THYP combines physical backing with embedded staking, a feature that remains unusual among exchange-traded products. Alongside THYP, 21Shares has also introduced a leveraged option, the 21Shares 2x Long HYPE ETF (TXXH), giving more aggressive traders a way to amplify daily moves in the token while staying inside a regulated market infrastructure.
Launch details: THYP’s debut and basic structure
21Shares officially announced the listing of THYP on Nasdaq on 12 May 2026, positioning it as the first U.S. spot ETF that provides direct exposure to HYPE. Trading data shared by the U.S. arm of 21Shares showed that the product recorded roughly 1.8 million dollars in first-day trading volume and net inflows of about 1.2 million dollars, a start that market commentators described as solid for a niche crypto asset.
The ETF is structured as a grantor trust holding actual HYPE tokens, rather than as a fund registered under the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940. That structure, framed under the Securities Act of 1933, allows the vehicle to passively track the underlying token’s price and incorporate staking, but it also means that THYP does not enjoy the same regulatory protections as a fully registered investment company.
According to product documentation, THYP trades on Nasdaq under ISIN US90137V1089. The sponsor charges a management fee of 0.30% per year, which 21Shares has described as the lowest management fee among Hyperliquid-focused ETFs as of 12 May. The expense ratio is in line with other recent crypto ETPs targeting investors who are sensitive to ongoing costs.
Custody of the underlying assets is handled by Anchorage Digital Bank and BitGo Bank & Trust. Both custodians use cold-storage arrangements and provide combined insurance coverage of up to 350 million dollars against theft and fraud, a point 21Shares highlights as part of the risk management framework around the product.
Integrated staking: how THYP seeks additional yield
One of the differentiating features of THYP is that the trust can stake a portion of its HYPE holdings to earn protocol rewards. Product materials indicate that, under normal conditions, between 30% and 70% of the HYPE in the portfolio may be delegated to staking via provider Figment Inc., with the option for 21Shares to lift that share up to 100% if it deems it appropriate.
The rewards generated by staking are split between the fund and the validator. Around 70% of staking proceeds accrue to the trust, while approximately 30% goes to Figment as compensation for validation services. Those rewards are not distributed as cash dividends to individual shareholders; instead, they are paid into the trust and are intended to be reflected in the fund’s net asset value over time.
21Shares notes that staking activity is subject to lock-up and unbonding periods, which can affect how quickly the ETF can adjust its staked balances. In turn, this may influence liquidity during periods of market stress, since some of the assets may not be immediately available for sale or redemption when unbonding windows are in effect.
To manage primary-market flows, THYP uses creation and redemption baskets of 10,000 shares that are available only to authorised participants. The ETF’s indicative value is designed to follow a dedicated Hyperliquid reference index for HYPE, while secondary-market trading takes place at market prices, which can deviate from the underlying net asset value.
TXXH: the leveraged 2x Hyperliquid ETF
Alongside the spot product, 21Shares has rolled out the 21Shares 2x Long HYPE ETF, TXXH, built for investors seeking amplified exposure to the token’s daily performance. TXXH aims to deliver approximately twice the daily return of HYPE, making it a more tactical instrument geared toward short-term strategies rather than buy-and-hold allocations.
TXXH carries a management fee of 1.89%, notably higher than that of THYP, reflecting both the complexity and additional costs involved in maintaining leveraged exposure. Unlike THYP, which is organised as a spot ETP under the 1933 Act, TXXH operates as an exchange-traded fund under the Investment Company Act of 1940, bringing it under a different, more stringent oversight regime.
The leveraged fund launched on 30 April 2026, shortly before THYP’s official debut, giving 21Shares an early read on market interest in Hyperliquid-linked strategies. By pairing a spot-style trust with a 2x product, the issuer is deliberately targeting two different types of investors: those who prefer relatively straightforward exposure to the ecosystem, and those willing to handle the additional risks of leverage and daily rebalancing.
Industry observers such as Nate Geraci, president of NovaDius Wealth, have pointed out that the existence of a leveraged 2x companion ETF broadens the toolkit for traders, but also demands more careful risk management from anyone using TXXH as part of a portfolio.
Risk profile: volatility, staking hazards and structural limits
21Shares dedicates a significant portion of its documentation to risk disclosures around THYP and TXXH. For THYP in particular, the prospectus underlines that the product may not be suitable for investors who cannot tolerate the possibility of substantial losses, including a complete loss of capital.
The token HYPE has displayed annualised volatility above 126%, a level far beyond what most traditional equity benchmarks experience. Sharp price swings, liquidity gaps and rapid changes in market sentiment can all translate into pronounced moves in the ETF’s share price, both intraday and over longer horizons.
On top of price volatility, staking introduces additional layers of risk. The trust faces potential penalties if validators underperform or engage in behaviour that results in slashing. Lock-up periods and delays when unbonding staked tokens can also slow down the fund’s ability to meet large redemption requests quickly, especially in stressed markets where many investors might try to exit at once.
Another structural element is that THYP’s shares trade at market prices, not directly at NAV. Individual investors cannot redeem shares directly with the trust, which means that premiums or discounts to net asset value can arise on the secondary market, particularly when trading volumes are thin or sentiment changes abruptly.
Because THYP is organised as a grantor trust and not registered as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, it does not offer the same regulatory safeguards associated with conventional mutual funds or ETFs. TXXH, in contrast, operates under the 1940 Act, benefiting from that framework but also being subject to its restrictions and oversight requirements.
Hyperliquid’s role in the on-chain derivatives landscape
The decision to build products around HYPE is closely tied to Hyperliquid’s growing footprint in the DeFi derivatives market. The protocol positions itself as a next-generation decentralised exchange, specialising in perpetual futures across both crypto-native and tokenised traditional assets.
Data highlighted by 21Shares suggests that Hyperliquid processes around 8 billion dollars in average daily trading volume and controls more than half of the open interest in decentralised perpetual contracts. Since its launch, the platform has reportedly accumulated over 4 trillion dollars in total trading volume, metrics that have helped attract institutional and ETF issuer attention.
One of the platform’s defining features is its order-book-based trading architecture, which combines on-chain settlement with a centralised order book in real time. This approach differentiates Hyperliquid from many DeFi protocols that rely primarily on automated market makers or heavily on price oracles for execution, and is seen by some as closer, in user experience, to centralised exchanges.
Hyperliquid has also seen strong adoption in tokenised versions of traditional market instruments, particularly contracts linked to oil benchmarks such as Brent and WTI, as well as products tied to precious metals and tokenised equities. The ability to trade these exposures on a 24/7 basis has gained relevance in periods of heightened geopolitical tension and commodity price volatility.
According to figures shared by 21Shares, more than 76% of the HYPE token supply is allocated to the community, while team tokens remain locked until 2028. The protocol reportedly generates over 56 million dollars per month in trading fees, with more than 95% of that amount being used for daily open-market buybacks of HYPE, reinforcing a link between platform activity and token flows.
Market reaction, flows and competing ETF filings
On the first trading day of THYP, on-chain and market data showed that HYPE’s price briefly climbed above 42 dollars before giving back part of the move. Around the time the stories were compiled, the token was changing hands in the low 40-dollar area, with intraday fluctuations that are typical for this kind of asset.
James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg, noted that THYP reached roughly 750,000 dollars in trading volume within about two and a half hours of the market open. By the close, the total of 1.8 million dollars put the launch in what he characterised as a “very solid” range for a new ETF, even if it fell well short of the biggest recent crypto product debuts.
For context, other launches have posted substantially higher numbers. The Bitwise Solana staking ETF (BSOL), for example, saw around 56 million dollars in first-day volume in October 2025, while Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF (MSBT) brought in about 34 million dollars on its opening day in April 2026. THYP, by comparison, follows a smaller and less widely held asset, which naturally limits its potential starting base.
The listing of THYP has also taken place against the backdrop of a modestly improving environment for crypto investment products. U.S. Bitcoin ETFs attracted close to 2 billion dollars in April 2026, reversing several months of net outflows and pushing cumulative flows for the year back into positive territory, a context that may help support interest in more specialised offerings.
The Hyperliquid launch is not happening in isolation. Asset managers Bitwise and Grayscale filed an S‑1 to list spot Hyperliquid ETFs under the tickers BHYP and GHYP, respectively. Market participants are watching how early flows into THYP develop, as this could influence how aggressively competitors push ahead and how fees or product designs evolve in response.
Who these products are aimed at and what to watch next
In communications around the launch, 21Shares framed THYP and TXXH as tools designed to bridge traditional investors into the Hyperliquid ecosystem. For those who prefer not to deal with self-custody, private keys or on-chain interfaces, a listed ETF can feel more approachable while still maintaining a direct link to underlying tokens.
THYP, with its spot exposure and integrated staking, is positioned as a gateway for investors seeking a more straightforward link to HYPE, potentially for medium-term allocation or for use alongside broader crypto portfolios. By contrast, TXXH is explicitly geared toward investors with higher risk tolerance who understand the mechanics of daily leverage and are comfortable with the possibility of magnified gains and losses.
Company executives have underscored Hyperliquid’s role in the DeFi derivatives market as a key rationale for bringing these products to Nasdaq. Andres Valencia, executive vice president for Investment Management at 21Shares, has described the protocol as a global liquidity hub for decentralised derivatives and argued that the new ETFs help narrow the gap between U.S. investors and that on-chain infrastructure.
Looking ahead, analysts point to several indicators to monitor: net inflows and trading volumes in THYP and TXXH, how closely the funds track the underlying token, the impact of staking rewards on performance, and whether large brokerage platforms choose to list the products for their clients. The behaviour of HYPE itself—still trading below its all-time high recorded in September 2025—will also shape perceptions of the new ETFs.
Altogether, the launch of THYP and TXXH places Hyperliquid and its HYPE token squarely on the radar of regulated markets. By combining spot exposure, staking mechanics and, in the case of TXXH, leverage, 21Shares has created a set of instruments that bring some of DeFi’s more specialised activity into an ETF wrapper, while making the associated risks and structural nuances clear for those considering whether to participate.
