CoinSpotMarket Update
Financial Giant Joins Stablecoin Market As Hyperliquid (HYPE) Bucks The Trend
3 minutes
8 days ago
3 minutes
8 days ago
Crypto markets experienced a sharp sell-off, with Bitcoin falling to its lowest level in over a year. The drop removed roughly $290 billion ($181 billion USD) in market value across the crypto market.
The sell-off comes from a mix of factors, including concerns about global tensions and falling tech stocks. Other major tokens like Ethereum and Solana also fell sharply, each down more than 50% from their peaks last year.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced ‘Project Crypto’, a new joint effort to create clearer rules for crypto. SEC Chair Paul Atkins called it "one of the most ambitious initiatives between the two agencies in a generation."
The two agencies have often disagreed about which one should oversee crypto. This new collaboration aims to end that confusion. The plan includes sharing information, working together on supervision, and creating clearer guidelines for things like tokenised assets and prediction markets. While Congress is still working on new crypto laws, the agencies said they may issue some guidance on their own in the near term.
SEC Chair Atkins speaking at the event earlier this week (Source: SEC via X)
U.S. President Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to become the next chair of the Federal Reserve, the central bank that sets U.S. interest rates. If confirmed by the Senate, Warsh will replace Chair Jerome Powell when his term ends in May. Warsh previously served on the Fed's board from 2006 to 2011, and was reportedly close to getting the role in late 2017 when Trump nominated Powell.
Fidelity Investments, one of the world's largest asset managers, announced it is launching its own stablecoin, the Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD). Expected to go live this month, FIDD will be available to both regular and large investors through Fidelity's platforms.
The coin is backed by cash and short-term U.S. government bonds, and Fidelity will publish daily updates on its reserves. Fidelity will become one of the first major traditional finance companies to enter the stablecoin market, putting it in direct competition with Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.
FIDD will initially launch on the Ethereum mainnet. However, according to CoinDesk, Fidelity said it may explore expanding to additional blockchains or layer-two networks moving forward.
Hyperliquid announced plans to add prediction markets, expanding beyond a platform to trade perpetual futures (perps) and spot markets. These would let users bet on the outcomes of real-world events, such as elections or economic data. The new feature, called HIP-4, is being tested now and could launch later this year.
The platform has also seen a massive increase in trading of real-world assets, such as gold and silver. Trading volume for these assets recently hit nearly $4.8 billion ($3 billion USD) in a single day. Hyperliquid has become one of the largest sources of demand for commodities trading in crypto, with silver trading alone reaching over $1.2 billion ($750 million USD) per day. However, sharp price moves recently led to millions in forced position closures for traders betting on these metals.
HYPE has been among the market’s best performers amid this latest sell-off. In recent days, HYPE nearly hit all-time highs relative to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
The protocol is well-known for directing nearly all of its revenue toward buying back the HYPE token and effectively removing it from circulation (i.e. buybacks). In recent weeks, daily protocol revenue has typically been between $1.42 million ($1 million USD) and $4.27 million ($3 million USD).
Hyperliquid’s protocol revenue has recently returned to above $2.85 million ($2 million USD) per day (Source: Blockworks Research)
