Hyperliquid (HYPE) Soars 20% as Trump Signals Potential US Access
BITmarkets Team
Aug 20, 2026
HYPE was trading near $62 before Trump’s comments and later surged as much as 16% to a 24-hour high of $72.28, according to CoinGecko. The token subsequently settled around $70, leaving it up approximately 20% over the previous 24 hours, while daily trading volume reached about $1.4 billion.
“I understand that Mike is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion,” Trump said during a Wednesday White House event, referring to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig. “Working very hard on that.”
Hyperliquid could seek compliant US access
Hyperliquid is a decentralized trading platform and layer-1 blockchain best known for its onchain perpetual futures exchange. It is currently the largest decentralized perpetual futures venue, accounting for roughly 40% of the sector’s trading volume over the past 30 days. DefiLlama data shows the platform processed approximately $201 billion in volume during that period.
However, neither the CFTC nor Hyperliquid has published details on how US access could be structured. It remains unclear whether a formal application has been submitted, what regulatory requirements would apply or when any compliant service might become available.
PURR shares rally alongside HYPE
The market reaction extended beyond the HYPE token. Shares of Hyperliquid Strategies, a Nasdaq-listed HYPE treasury company trading under the ticker PURR, closed Wednesday at $9.39, gaining 30.4%, according to Yahoo Finance. Despite the similar name, Hyperliquid Strategies has stated that it operates independently and is not affiliated with the Hyperliquid protocol.
Around four hours before Trump’s remarks, an unidentified trader reportedly spent approximately $65,000 on 719 PURR call options with an $8 strike price and an expiration in mid-October. According to CNBC, the contracts were purchased for about $0.90 each and were quoted at $2.45 by the market close. That increased the position’s estimated value to roughly $176,000, representing an unrealized gain of around $111,000.
Unusual options activity draws attention
Delayed market data from the Options Price Reporting Authority also showed unusually heavy activity in the same contract. OptiView data indicated that 2,575 of the October $8 calls traded during the session, compared with just 67 contracts in open interest beforehand. Trading volume was more than 140 times the contract’s 30-day average.
The publicly available information does not reveal the identity of the buyer and does not establish that the trade was based on material nonpublic information.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/markets/hype-price-jumps-trump-hyperliquid-us-access
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/hyperliquid
https://opti-view.com/underlying/PURR/options
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PURR/
