Grayscale amends HYPE ETF filing as the crypto fund race broadens beyond bitcoin and ether

Grayscale amended its HYPE ETF registration statement with the SEC on Friday, joining a widening contest around Hyperliquid-linked funds as crypto ETF issuers look beyond Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). The revision did not remake the trust’s basic structure, but it arrived after rival spot HYPE products had already started drawing assets, giving the filing more weight than a routine update might usually carry.

According to The Block’s reporting on Wednesday’s flows, U.S. spot HYPE ETFs drew $25.5 million of net inflows in one session and $54 million across their first seven trading days. Earlier in the week, The Block reported that the products had already attracted $22.3 million in early inflows, while Sherwood reported that HYPE-linked funds led crypto ETF inflows on one launch-day snapshot with about $11 million of fresh money. Those figures help explain why Grayscale’s amendment matters now: the category is already pulling in capital.

For issuers, the early flow data suggests the next stretch of crypto ETF demand may extend beyond the two largest tokens. Grayscale is entering a market where asset managers are testing whether investors will buy exposure to newer tokens with a business model attached, not only to the established store-of-value trades that defined the first ETF wave.

In an analysis published by The Block, Bitwise described HYPE as a “Gen 2” crypto asset and said some ETF fees would be used to accumulate the token. That pitch shifts the story away from momentum and toward an exchange ecosystem with usage-linked economics. It also shows that competitors have already started telling investors how to value the asset.

Staking still unresolved

Grayscale said in the prospectus amendment that “as of the date of this prospectus, the Staking Condition has not been met for the Trust,” which means the product cannot stake the underlying tokens for now. That remains the main design question for crypto ETFs beyond Bitcoin and Ether. Staking rewards could help distinguish these funds, but the custody, operational and regulatory issues are still unsettled.

The filing also sets out the market backdrop. As of March 31, Grayscale said HYPE had a circulating supply of 256 million tokens, an aggregate market value of $9.4 billion and 24-hour trading volume of $232.7 million. Those figures are well below Bitcoin’s scale, but they are large enough to support an ETF discussion, particularly for a token linked to an active trading venue rather than a payments narrative.

In The Block’s report on Wednesday’s inflows, Presto Research analyst Peter Chung said institutions were moving into HYPE funds faster than they did into spot Bitcoin ETFs on a market-cap adjusted basis. He said, “Institutions appear to be seizing the opportunity: early data shows they are piling into HYPE ETFs faster than they did into BTC ETFs on a market-cap-adjusted basis.”

In the same report, CoinEx’s Jeff Ko said HYPE was closer to a cashflow generating exchange equity. That framing gets at the question underneath the latest filing wave. If buyers see some tokens as claims on exchange-like activity rather than only as passive stores of value, the menu of crypto ETFs can widen faster than many investors expected after the first U.S. spot Bitcoin approvals.

For Grayscale, the amendment is also a position statement. The firm already has a recognised name in crypto funds, but the Hyperliquid category is moving on a shorter clock than the long campaign that brought spot Bitcoin ETFs to market. Flow data is arriving in real time, rival issuers are shaping the category early, and the central question is no longer only whether the SEC will allow exposure. It is also what kind of exposure investors actually want.

The Block reported that HYPE climbed to a record above $60 this week amid rising institutional demand. That move suggests ETF activity may be feeding back into price discovery rather than merely tracking it.

Friday’s filing does not settle whether investors will ultimately prefer simple spot exposure, staking yield or a broader exchange-linked bet. It does show that issuers think the next crypto ETF race may reach further into the market than the first Bitcoin and Ether wave did.