21Shares will launch its spot Hyperliquid exchange-traded fund, THYP, on Nasdaq on May 12, 2026. The product, structured as a grantor trust rather than a 1940 Act fund, lets the trust stake HYPE tokens for yield while still tracking the spot price. It’s the latest push into crypto ETFs after the firm’s 2x leveraged HYPE ETF, TXXH, began trading just last week.
How the staking model works
THYP is designed to hold HYPE and use Figment Inc. as its staking provider. The trust plans to stake between 30% and 70% of its HYPE holdings, with sponsor discretion to go as high as 100%. Staking rewards get split roughly 70% to the trust and 30% to Figment. That yield, minus a 0.30% annual sponsor fee paid in HYPE, goes back to the fund’s performance.
In-kind creation and redemption baskets come in lots of 10,000 shares and are limited to authorized participants. The fund uses the FTSE Hyperliquid Index as its pricing benchmark. Custody is split between Anchorage Digital Bank and BitGo Bank & Trust, with cold storage backed by up to $350 million in joint theft and fraud insurance.
Risks baked into the prospectus
The filing warns of several hazards. HYPE’s annualized volatility sits above 126%. Validator jailing penalties and staking lockups lasting one to seven days could delay redemptions. The trust isn’t a registered investment company under the 1940 Act, so it lacks certain investor protections that come with that structure.
At time of writing, HYPE traded at $42.071. The underlying Hyperliquid platform has processed over $4.3 trillion in cumulative trading volume.
Competing filings and next steps
21Shares isn’t alone in chasing a spot HYPE ETF. Bitwise and Grayscale have both filed for competing products under the tickers BHYP and GHYP. The SEC has yet to rule on those proposals. THYP’s May 12 listing date gives it a first-mover window, but the race to offer direct HYPE exposure is far from over.
For investors, the big unresolved question is how staking will affect tax treatment and tracking error. The prospectus doesn’t give a target yield range, and the sponsor’s ability to raise the staking percentage up to 100% leaves room for big swings in both returns and risk.
