Bitwise’s $4.31M BHYP ETF debut sparks HYPE short squeeze
Bitwise’s $4.31M BHYP ETF debut on NYSE Arca coincided with a 5% HYPE rally, triggering about $7.1M in liquidations and briefly lifting the token above its $47 peak.
Bitwise launched the BHYP spot ETF on NYSE Arca on May 15. The fund recorded $4.31 million in opening-day volume, the largest debut for a U.S. spot altcoin ETF so far in 2026. Trading around the ETF’s debut coincided with a more than 5% rise in the HYPE token, which briefly topped its previous $47 peak at around midnight before slipping to $45.50 by 5:11 a.m. EDT. The token’s market capitalization increased to about $10.85 billion from roughly $9.9 billion on May 16.
Derivatives data show the intraday rise forced roughly $7.1 million in liquidations, with short positions making up about 75% of the total. The data recorded about 2,279 HYPE trader liquidations worldwide. The largest single liquidation tied to the token was about $877,299.
BHYP runs staking in-house through Bitwise Onchain Solutions. The fund manages staking of its HYPE holdings and credits staking rewards to the fund’s net asset value, rather than using third-party staking providers.
HYPE had plunged nearly 10% over the prior weekend after reports that Intercontinental Exchange and CME had asked U.S. regulators to examine Hyperliquid. The ETF debut and the following trading helped recover part of those losses.
The HYPE rebound occurred during a broader market sell-off that pushed bitcoin below $77,000 for the first time in more than two weeks. Bitcoin Cash fell about 12% and Dogecoin retreated nearly 6% to $0.104. Many large-cap altcoins fell between 2% and 4%, moving the aggregate altcoin market capitalization toward $1 trillion. Total crypto market capitalization slipped from just under $2.7 trillion to about $2.65 trillion.
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