21Shares US rolled out the 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF on Nasdaq this week, giving institutional investors a direct line to HYPE without the trouble of self-custody or derivatives. The fund, ticker THYP, started trading on May 12. It’s structured as a grantor trust, meaning it holds the actual token — not futures, not swaps. The sponsor fee sits at 0.30% annually. Custody is split between Anchorage Digital Bank and BitGo, both federally chartered national trust banks.
How the trust works
THYP buys HYPE and keeps it with two regulated custodians. There’s no synthetic exposure, no leverage, no trickery. The trust will stake a portion of its HYPE through Figment, a regulated staking provider, and pay out the rewards as quarterly cash dividends. Figment takes 30% of the staking rewards as its fee; the rest flows to shareholders. The prospectus doesn’t describe any buyback mechanism, so dividends are the main payout channel.
Staking and income
The staking arrangement is the headline here. Most crypto ETFs in the U.S. have shied away from staking because of regulatory uncertainty. 21Shares is going ahead, using Figment as the staking agent. The dividends give investors a yield on top of potential price appreciation. For HYPE holders who don’t want to manage validators or deal with lockup periods, this wraps the income stream into a regulated security.
Hyperliquid launched in November 2024, and HYPE quickly became a standout performer. The token took a hit during the broader crypto correction but staged an aggressive reversal and has been consolidating since. The ETF launch is a milestone for the project’s institutional infrastructure — it gives pension funds, endowments, and wirehouses a familiar entry point. The fact that Anchorage and BitGo are involved adds a layer of trust that the on-chain crowd usually provides for itself.
For now, the ETF gives institutional investors a US-regulated vehicle to own HYPE directly, something that didn’t exist before this month. The next test will be how much demand the fund attracts in a market still digesting the correction.
