HYPE Hits New ATH Near $73.7 on Hyperliquid Fee Buybacks

HYPE surged to a new all-time high near $73.7 as Hyperliquid intensified its fee-driven buybacks. After the move, traders closely watched perps positioning: Lookonchain said a user (loraclexyz) opened a large HYPE short on Hyperliquid, which reversed during the rally and wiped roughly $42M in perpetual profits in 18 days, adding about $5.19M more loss. Analyst 0xc06 argues the breakout is not only sentiment. Hyperliquid’s annualized fees are near $1.3B (2025 revenue about $822M), with daily fees often above $1.3M and occasionally over $1.6M, supported by around $2.6T trading volume in 2025. The key mechanism: Hyperliquid routes about 97% of collected fees into an Assistance Fund that automatically buys HYPE on the open market daily. The fund has accumulated over $1.3B in purchases and holds about 28.5M HYPE, which the analyst estimates could remove around 14% of circulating supply annually on a market-cap basis (roughly ~7% yearly), resembling a continuous on-chain repurchase. Key risk for HYPE traders: buyback intensity depends on trading volume. Also, a token unlock scheduled for June 6 (about 9.9M HYPE) could add supply while the buyback fund remains active, increasing sensitivity around ATH levels and perps hedging flows.