Hyperliquid (HYPE) Price: Token Jumps 20% After Trump Signals US Access Plan

TLDR

• HYPE jumped as much as 20% after President Trump said the CFTC is working to bring Hyperliquid into the US legally.
• The token hit a 24-hour high of $72.28 before settling near $70, with volume reaching $1.4 billion.
• Hyperliquid Strategies (PURR), a Nasdaq-listed treasury firm holding HYPE, closed up 30.4% at $9.39.
• CNBC reported unusual options activity in PURR call contracts hours before Trump’s comments, producing a $111,000 unrealized gain.
• CFTC Chair Michael Selig said he would share more details on a regulatory path the next day.

President Donald Trump said on August 19 that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States under a compliant framework.

Hyperliquid is a decentralized trading platform built on its own layer-1 blockchain. It is best known for its onchain perpetual futures exchange.

Trump made the comment at a White House event referring to CFTC Chair Michael Selig. “I understand that Mike is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion,” he said.

The event included Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. SEC Chair Paul Atkins also attended.

HYPE traded around $62 before Trump spoke. It jumped as much as 16% to a 24-hour high of $72.28, according to CoinGecko.

The token later settled near $70, up about 20% for the day. Trading volume over 24 hours reached $1.4 billion.

Two Separate Assets Moved Together

Shares of Hyperliquid Strategies, listed under the ticker PURR, closed Wednesday at $9.39. That was up 30.4% on the day, according to Yahoo Finance.

The company holds HYPE as its main treasury asset. It has said it operates independently from the Hyperliquid protocol despite the shared name.

Hyperliquid itself is the largest decentralized perpetuals exchange by volume. It handled roughly $201 billion in trading over the past 30 days, about 40% of the sector total, per DefiLlama.

Options Activity Raised Questions

About four hours before Trump’s remarks, someone paid roughly $65,000 for 719 PURR call options with an $8 strike price expiring in mid-October, CNBC reported.

The contracts cost about $0.90 each at the time of purchase. They closed the session quoted at $2.45, giving the position an unrealized gain of about $111,000.

OptiView data showed 2,575 of those October $8 calls traded during the session. Open interest beforehand stood at just 67 contracts, meaning volume was over 140 times the 30-day average.

Neither Hyperliquid nor the CFTC has released a formal proposal explaining how US access would work. It is unclear if an application has been submitted or when any service could launch.

CFTC Chair Michael Selig said he planned to share more details the following day. That timing lined up with the CFTC’s first Innovation Advisory Committee meeting in Washington on August 20, covering crypto assets and prediction markets.

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