Van de Poppe: HYPE hits new ATH after two U.S. HYPE ETF launches
He says Hyperliquid and beaten-down AI tokens like NEAR and TAO signal a renewed altcoin risk-on phase.
Crypto trader Michael van de Poppe said Hyperliquid is outperforming much of the market as traders rotate back into higher-risk altcoins, with HYPE printing a new all-time high after two HYPE ETFs launched in the U.S. He also pitched AI-linked tokens such as NEAR and Bittensor (TAO) as undervalued infrastructure plays, while flagging bond yields, especially Japan, as the key near-term macro trigger.
Key Takeaways
- HYPE set a new all-time high after two U.S.-listed HYPE ETFs launched, as Hyperliquid was framed as a near-term beneficiary of renewed altcoin risk appetite.
- European derivatives flow has been shifting toward Hyperliquid as access to perpetual futures remains constrained on many regulated venues in Europe.
- AI-linked crypto projects were described as “deeply undervalued” versus traditional AI companies, with NEAR and Bittensor positioned as infrastructure proxies.
- Bond yields and central bank policy were flagged as the dominant near-term macro drivers, with Japanese government bond yields singled out as a key risk-appetite signal.
HYPE Prints a New ATH After Two U.S. HYPE ETF Launches
Michael van de Poppe said Hyperliquid is outperforming much of the crypto market as traders rotate back into higher-risk assets, and that its HYPE token hit a new all-time high after two HYPE ETFs launched in the U.S. The packet does not include the ETF issuers, tickers, launch dates, or the exact all-time-high level, but the sequence matters for positioning: a fresh ATH alongside new U.S.-listed wrappers is being used as evidence that beta is back in favor.
Van de Poppe tied that strength to a broader “risk appetite in altcoins” setup, arguing that liquidity is concentrating in a small set of protocols showing strong user growth and revenue. In that framing, Hyperliquid is not just a token story. It is a venue story, and venues can capture flow reflexively when the market shifts from passive spot exposure to active derivatives trading.
Why Hyperliquid Is Pulling Flow: Europe’s Perps Access Gap and Liquidity Concentration
Van de Poppe said European traders have increasingly moved to Hyperliquid because perpetual futures trading remains difficult to access on many regulated venues in Europe. For active traders, that is a market-structure point with second-order effects: when regulated access narrows, liquidity does not disappear, it relocates. If the relocation concentrates on a single venue, the associated token can benefit from both narrative momentum and actual usage.
He also argued Hyperliquid’s push into tokenized stocks, commodities and pre-IPO assets is accelerating tokenization trends across crypto markets. That expansion widens the surface area for activity, but it also raises the bar for competitors. Van de Poppe warned that rivals will eventually enter and pressure Hyperliquid’s dominance, which keeps the current outperformance in the “near-term beneficiary” bucket rather than a guaranteed moat.
AI-Crypto Valuation Pitch: NEAR Revenue Projections and Bittensor’s Subnet Expansion
Van de Poppe’s AI setup was explicitly framed as a relative-valuation trade against traditional AI equities. He said, “The AI-linked crypto projects remain deeply undervalued relative to traditional AI companies,” and highlighted NEAR and Bittensor as infrastructure plays tied to AI adoption in crypto.
The upside cases were conditional and adoption-dependent. Van de Poppe said NEAR’s projected revenue growth from roughly $10 million in 2025 to as much as $100 million this year supports a significantly higher valuation, though the packet does not provide the underlying methodology for that projection. On Bittensor, he said its ecosystem expansion and subnet structure could justify prices between $1,000 and $2,000 if adoption continues.
Macro and Regulation Backdrop: Japan Yields, Fed Expectations, and the Privacy Trade-Off
Van de Poppe said bond yields and central bank policy remain the biggest near-term macro drivers for crypto, with Japanese bond yields flagged as a key market signal that could influence broader risk appetite. He said falling yields could support equities and crypto, while persistent inflation could create headwinds. He also said he does not expect aggressive Fed rate cuts or renewed monetary easing soon, and warned additional rate hikes would likely pressure risk assets.
On regulation, he framed privacy as a long-term theme but argued fully anonymous systems face major regulatory risk. He said funds in Europe already face restrictions interacting with certain privacy-focused assets, and pointed to zero-knowledge proof systems and permissioned privacy models as more sustainable paths for institutional adoption.
This is the forward-looking checklist traders actually care about: whether HYPE holds above its newly set ATH zone with sustained post-ETF volume and inflows, whether Japanese government bond yields move sharply enough to change cross-asset risk appetite, whether Fed messaging confirms “no aggressive cuts soon,” and whether NEAR and TAO adoption data tracks the thesis through NEAR’s revenue trajectory and continued Bittensor subnet expansion.
Marcus Hale’s Take: Short-Term HYPE Momentum vs. Solana as the Multi-Year Infrastructure Bet
I read this as a clean risk-on tell, but not a free lunch. A new HYPE all-time high paired with two U.S.-listed ETFs is a powerful sentiment catalyst, and the Europe perps access gap is the kind of structural friction that can concentrate liquidity fast. The threshold that matters is whether that flow persists once the initial ETF headline fades and competitors start offering similar rails.
Van de Poppe’s AI pitch is also more coherent than the usual narrative trade because it is framed as relative valuation versus overheated AI equities, with NEAR and TAO positioned as infrastructure proxies. The real test is whether the adoption inputs show up in the numbers he cited, and whether macro cooperates, because he is explicitly anchoring near-term direction to yields, especially Japan, while separating time horizons by naming Solana as the stronger multi-year infrastructure bet. This matters in practical terms if HYPE can hold its post-ETF breakout while yields ease enough to keep leverage demand and altcoin liquidity concentrated on the same venues.
