HYPE has entered price discovery once again after breaking above $97, setting expectations for a move into three-digit territory. Price discovery is the phase an asset enters after clearing its previous all-time high, when there is no historical overhead resistance left and live supply and demand alone set the new levels. The token's advance was powered by spot demand as well as directional positioning on derivatives markets.

During Asian trading hours, HYPE spiked to $97.32 and retained most of its gains before easing back to around $96. The token is still expected to break above $100 in the near term and establish a new price range for sustained trading.

The recent rally carried HYPE to a fresh all-time high at a time when most blue-chip tokens remain 50% to 80% below their own peaks. Even Bitcoin would need a 48% price increase to reclaim its previous all-time high.

As of September 2026, HYPE is posting record daily trading volumes. During the latest record spike, volumes reached $1.15B. Those records come with a circulation of 222M tokens out of a total supply of 995M, meaning less than a quarter of HYPE is currently in circulation.

Roughly 8% of all HYPE volume still takes place on the native Hyperliquid platform. With trading no longer highly concentrated, HYPE activity can serve as a broad indicator of improving crypto sentiment.

HYPE open interest reaches new all-time peak

The broader crypto market recovery has lifted investor appetite for risk. HYPE open interest expanded to a new all-time high of $2.96B, just as derivatives trading in altcoins and tokens was picking up. Open interest tracks the notional value of derivative positions left open, rather than traded volume, which makes it a standard gauge of how much leveraged capital is committed to a market.

Hyperliquid's L1 open interest is also at an all-time peak, recently breaking above $9B according to DeFi Llama data. Hyperliquid itself reported total open interest of more than $18B, a new all-time record.

Open interest reached an all-time high of $18B on Hyperliquid pic.twitter.com/rIVNZywI83 — Hyperliquid (@HyperliquidX) September 23, 2026

HYPE now sits in the top 12 of coins and tokens by open interest, on track to break out among legacy coins, based on Coinalyze data.

Much of the growth in open interest reflects the need to take directional positions. Over 62% of traders are long on HYPE, with around 37% on average holding short positions. On Hyperliquid itself, more than 65% of traders are going long.

The recent price rally has triggered approximately $2.15M in short liquidations over the past 24 hours, as exchanges closed leveraged short positions that could no longer meet margin requirements. For now, traders are not attempting to short HYPE or betting on a quick breakdown of the uptrend.

HYPE shows potential for sustainable growth

HYPE trading has evolved beyond its initial reliance on the native Hyperliquid DEX. The token is now widely distributed, with multiple sources of liquidity.

Ongoing burning of trading fees provides support, immediately reflecting shifts in trader sentiment and effectively tying token supply to platform activity. Because burned tokens are permanently removed from circulation, heavier trading directly tightens the available supply. Additionally, around 13% of the total supply is staked, keeping it out of active trading.

Future emissions may increase the overall supply of HYPE over time, but in the short term, demand generated by trading fees and staking is what controls HYPE inflation. How these opposing supply forces net out is one of the variables traders are monitoring as the token attempts to settle into a new range.

Demand for HYPE also stems from protocol requirements that call for staking additional coins when deploying perpetual futures markets, as well as prediction pairs on the HIP-4 platform.

Individual whales are further boosting demand in HYPE spot markets. Over the past month, one whale spent $400M on HYPE, recently adding another $36M worth of tokens within days. HYPE pays out 2.23% in staking fees and has additional uses within the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

Notably, the recent climb of HYPE has not involved treasury companies or any form of ETF buying, relying mostly on crypto insiders and whales to keep up with spot demand.

The advance is starting to raise questions about HYPE's real. Hyperliquid achieves $694M in annualized revenues and has recorded positive earnings for the past six quarters. HYPE now trades at a multiple of roughly 30 times the platform's annual revenues, entering a price zone where platform growth is challenged to keep pace with the token's expansion.

Additional revenue comes from the Hyperliquid L1 platform, derived mainly from existing trading apps and deployers. For now, Hyperliquid lags in revenues from stablecoin usage, which still occurs mostly on Ethereum, Solana, and TRON.