Hyperliquid is having a rough start to Q3, with fundamentals dropping to levels last seen in April. After a strong jump in perpetual volume in early July to $84B, the decentralized exchange’s activity has now dropped to $43B. That’s a 2x decline in traction in less than three weeks.
Similarly, the overall total Open Interest (OI), measuring the capital inflows of open contracts, slipped from $75B to $65B. That’s a $10B drop in OI in July, further underscoring the slowing traction.
Amid the cool-off, revenue has decreased by 3x from a weekly average of $23M to $7.5M this week.
As illustrated on the chart, the declining revenue (red) and perp volume (purple) have dragged HYPE token’s price (green) lower. This may be connected to the pace of buybacks amid dropping revenue.
HYPE buyback drops by half
In June, HYPE buybacks rose by 4x from a daily average of 14K tokens to over 44K. The strong buyback and positive ecosystem catalysts and ETF flows boosted the token to a new record high of $76.9 on the Binance platform.
However, the pace of buybacks has since dropped to around 22K HYPE, marking a sharp decline by half from its mid-June levels.
And the U.S Spot HYPE ETF demand has not made the situation any better over the last few days. Since 9th July, the products have seen zero demand or outflows, with 15th July being the exception.
With declining fundamentals, easing buybacks, a16z’s $30M sell-off, and lack of interest from institutional investors, HYPE’s price pullback did not come as a surprise.
HYPE’s price drops 19% as traction slows down
At the time of writing, HYPE was valued at $58, down 19% from a high of $73 in July. Still, the price action was around $60, which acted as a previous price peak last year and a key support in 2026.
It is still unclear if the $60-support would hold after being tested three times since May.
A decisive weekly candlestick close below the crucial support would reinforce Hyperliquid [HYPE]’s weakening momentum.
In case of an extended decline, $48-$54 could be the next key support zone. Even so, Hyperliquid became an outlier in 2026 and outperformed several tokens in investor returns. Whether it will bounce back strongly if risk appetite improves remains to be seen.
Final Summary
- Hyperliquid’s perpetual volume and revenue have dropped by 2x and 3x, respectively.
- The slowing fundamentals have weighed on HYPE’s price, triggering nearly 20% in losses