We have reported extensively on corporations diversifying their treasuries to hold cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, Solana and XRP. In a new development, two US-based firms have just announced plans to acquire a little-known but fast growing crypto, Hyperliquid (HYPE), for their treasuries. Hyperliquid is a high-speed Layer 1 blockchain optimized for perpetuals trading, has seen a wave of adoption. In the past 30 days, it has accountedfor 60% of the total onchain perps volume. HYPE ranks as the 12th-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, having surged 380% from its April low to an all-time high of $45.57 on June 16.
These treasury deals are nothing to scoff at. Nasdaq-listed Lion Group Holding (LGHL) plans to acquire $600 million worth of HYPE for its treasury reserve. According to the company, $10.6 million of the capital will be deployed by June 20.
The firm said in an announcement today:
“Hyperliquid represents a natural extension of LGHL’s existing derivatives business into decentralized markets, and reflects our conviction that decentralized on-chain execution is the future of trading. We view protocols like HYPE, with decentralized sequencing, as foundational to building scalable DeFi systems.”
Another Nasdaq-listed firm, a biotech company called Eyenovia Inc, has announced it has secured $50 million in private equity financing to accumulate over 1 million Hyperliquid tokens. With this move, Eyenovia becomes the first publicly traded U.S. company to hold HYPE in its treasury and operate as a Hyperliquid blockchain validator.
Eyenovia plans to execute a staking strategy with its HYPE holdings and use Anchorage Digital to secure its assets. In addition, the company will rebrand to “Hyperion DeFi” and change its ticker symbol to HYPD.
Up until this year it was virtually unheard of for a corporation to incorporate cryptocurrency into its treasury reserve strategy. The few that did, such as Nasdaq-listed Strategy, did it with Bitcoin. But with the crypto market maturing and decentralized finance gaining a strong foothold in the traditional finance space – and indeed reshaping finance and banking – institutions are now showing a strong appetite to get in on the action. Crypto is no longer just speculation and hype – it is about transformation and another kind of HYPE!