Hyperliquid is up 30% to begin the yr, buoyed by the approaching launch of latest merchandise for crypto merchants.
Of the highest 20 cryptocurrencies in the world, solely a handful are in optimistic territory for the yr. Market bellwethers Bitcoin (BTC +2.86%) and Ethereum (ETH +5.61%) are down greater than 15% every, and extra speculative altcoins are down as a lot as 25%.
However amid this market mayhem, there’s one cryptocurrency that has managed to soar in worth by 30% to begin the yr: Hyperliquid (HYPE 2.49%). If the hype about HYPE is true, this cryptocurrency may soar 80% or larger in 2026.
The hype about HYPE
Final yr, Hyperliquid exploded in recognition, amid all of the hoopla about crypto perpetual futures (“perps”). Hyperliquid has shortly change into one of the top decentralized exchanges for trading crypto perpetual futures, and buying and selling quantity has to date been by way of the roof. This is a product with immense attraction for risk-seeking crypto buyers: It allows them to guess on the longer term worth of a cryptocurrency, with no fastened expiration date and maximal leverage.
At this time’s Change
(-2.49%) $-0.83
Present Worth
$32.41
Key Knowledge Factors
Market Cap
$7.7B
Day’s Vary
$31.59 – $34.39
52wk Vary
$9.42 – $59.30
Quantity
679M
After launching at a worth of $3 in November 2024, Hyperliquid finally hit a excessive of $59 in September 2025. However since then, it has collapsed in worth, and is at the moment buying and selling for simply $33 as I write this.
That is why I believe Hyperliquid may see a rally of 80% or larger in 2026. The market is simply now waking as much as the truth that HYPE is badly undervalued. A rally of 80% would convey it again to its worth of $59 from just some months in the past.
The massive catalyst for Hyperliquid in 2026
There’s one large new potential catalyst for HYPE in 2026, and that is the approaching arrival of latest “consequence contracts” for the Hyperliquid buying and selling platform, in addition to new merchandise for choices merchants.
These “consequence contracts” are a hybrid of prediction market contracts and financial derivatives, in which the ultimate consequence is binary (i.e., sure or no). If they are a hit with buyers, they might propel Hyperliquid to even larger buying and selling volumes and even higher recognition.
Picture supply: Getty Photographs.
Some have prompt that the Hyperliquid platform would possibly even start to woo away merchants who might need in any other case used a platform similar to Kalshi or Polymarket to make a prediction concerning the future worth of a cryptocurrency. If that is the case, Hyperliquid would possibly go on to set one other all-time excessive in 2026.
Classes from the 2022 crypto collapse
After all, any march larger by Hyperliquid goes to be sophisticated if cryptocurrency behemoths Bitcoin and Ethereum cannot get issues rolling once more. However it’s not unattainable.
As a degree of reference, I checked out returns from 2022, when the complete crypto market cratered in worth. Bitcoin fell by 64% and Ethereum fell by 68%. Some altcoins misplaced as a lot as 95% of their worth.
However a couple of names managed to shine, together with GMX, a decentralized cryptocurrency alternate permitting customers to commerce with excessive leverage. At this time, GMX is a forgotten crypto with a tiny $60 million market cap. However in 2022, it managed to ship returns of 111% to buyers, making it one of many top-performing cryptocurrencies of the yr.
All of which leads me to suppose: 2026 may find yourself being the yr of Hyperliquid. If HYPE is the brand new GMX, it may almost double in worth this yr.
