CoinDesk
Hyperliquid's HYPE and rival perpetual-futures tokens LIT have surged 40% or more over the past week as onchain trading volumes and protocol fee revenue hit record territory. HYPE extended its rally after Trade.xyz, a trading interface on the Hyperliquid blockchain, listed a Space pre-IPO perpetual contract on Monday that valued the company at $1.78 trillion and drew more than $30 million in first-day volume. The protocol now captures over 40% of total marketwide fee revenue, according to DefiLlama, and the monthly average volume on the top 12 decentralized perpetual-futures exchanges has climbed to $612 billion in 2026 from $532 billion in 2025, per CoinGecko.
Why it matters
The same capital that is leaving majors is rotating into two narrow themes: derivatives infrastructure and privacy. Privacy- and quantum-resistant coins including Zcash (ZEC), Quantum Resistant Ledger's QRL, Qubitcoin's QTC and Starknet's STRK have climbed between 6% and 25%. Fund manager Arthur Hayes and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin both made the privacy case this week, with Buterin outlining steps to bring privacy features to Ethereum. On the quantum side, Google researchers have warned that a sufficiently powerful quantum machine could in theory attack a blockchain the size of Bitcoin with significantly fewer resources than previously estimated.
Market impact
Bitcoin is stuck around $77,300, struggling to recover ground lost over the past seven days. Ether has broken below the trendline connecting the March and April lows, leaving the $1,937 March floor as the key support and a violation there exposing levels below $1,800. Analysts at Marex called the macro setup a relief bid rather than a clean bull restart, noting softer US-Iran talks have taken inflation pressure off the tape but the market remains constrained by rates. The signal: flows are chasing use-case narratives, not broad beta, and the next move in majors hinges on whether that rotation reverses or deepens.
Frequently asked questions
-
Why is HYPE rallying this week?
HYPE extended its rally after Trade.xyz listed a Space pre-IPO perpetual contract on Hyperliquid on Monday, valuing Space at $1.78 trillion and drawing over $30 million in first-day volume. The protocol now captures more than 40% of total marketwide fee revenue, per DefiLlama.
-
How much has onchain perpetual-futures volume grown in 2026?
Monthly average volume on the top 12 decentralized perpetual-futures exchanges has climbed to $612 billion in 2026 from $532 billion in 2025, according to CoinGecko data cited in the CoinDesk Daybook.
-
Which privacy and quantum-resistant coins are gaining?
Zcash (ZEC), Quantum Resistant Ledger's QRL, Qubitcoin's QTC and Starknet's STRK have climbed between 6% and 25% as investors rotate into coins with clear use-case narratives.
-
What is the quantum risk to Bitcoin?
Google researchers have warned that a sufficiently powerful quantum machine could in theory attack a blockchain the size of Bitcoin with significantly fewer resources than previously estimated, providing a fundamental tailwind for quantum-resistant ledgers.
-
What is the key technical level for ETH right now?
Ether has broken below the trendline connecting the March and April lows, leaving the $1,937 March floor as the key support. A violation there would expose levels below $1,800.
TheBlock
CoinTelegraph
WatcherGuru
WuBlockchain