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Crypto markets have had a positive start to the week, with clear outperformers but for very different reasons. The chart below shows the week-over-week performance of various assets as of Sept. 8. We observe that $WLD (+84%), $PUMP (+39%), $ENA (+25%), $HYPE (+18%), and $SOL (+9%) have shown remarkable relative strength against $BTC (+3%) and $ETH (flat).
Let’s start discussing $HYPE and $PUMP, whose outperformance has been primarily fundamentals- or value-driven. Regarding Hyperliquid, major stablecoin issuers including Paxos, Frax, Sky and Agora are outbidding each other ahead of a Sept. 14 validator governance vote that will determine who gets to have Hyperliquid’s native “$USDH” ticker, with proposals offering aggressive revenue-sharing agreements (up to 100%).
The $USDH debate has centered around institution- vs. native-team issuance and ecosystem alignment. For instance, Native Markets, led by Max Fiege, proposed that 50% of the reserve yield be immutably contributed to the Assistance Fund, while the other 50% be dedicated to $USDH growth through partnerships with builder-code interfaces, HIP-3 markets and HyperEVM apps. Paxos, on the other hand, proposed allocating 95% of interest from reserves backing $USDH to buy back $HYPE and redistributing it to applications and validators proportional to their $USDH balances across their platforms.
While Native Markets would be GENIUS-compliant via Bridge, Paxos has highlighted its already proven global regulatory coverage and reach (not only GENIUS, but also MiCA and MAS-compliant), with existing payment corridor integrations across the Middle East, Latam, Africa and Asia. While it’s still unclear who will come out on top, it’s evident that Hyperliquid wins regardless. Migrating $5 billion in USDC deposits to $USDH could represent an additional $200 million in revenue for Hyperliquid annually, representing ~20% of its ~$1 billion revenue run rate. At the same time, the battle to win the $USDH ticker showcases the conviction and value these issuers see in Hyperliquid’s exchange and the HyperEVM ecosystem, with $HYPE hitting an all-time high of $52.67 today.
While Hyperliquid has been the center of attention, $PUMP has actually been the best-performing asset of the two in the past week, up 39% (vs. 18% for $HYPE). Pump has decisively reclaimed its launchpad market share, now above 85%, running at an annualized revenue rate of $540 million and using 100% of its revenues to buy back the token. Moreover, it remains surprisingly attractively priced, with a circulating P/S of three and FDV/Sales of nine.
The other side of $HYPE and $PUMP’s fundamentals-driven price increases are $SOL, $ENA, and $WLD’s DATCO-driven flows. Yesterday, Forward Industries (NASDAQ: FORD), Galaxy-Multicoin’s $SOL DATCO, announced $1.65 billion in cash and stablecoin commitments, confirming Kyle Samani as chairman. With this announcement, the big question regarding whether DATCO purchases would translate to buying $SOL with cash on the secondary market vs. simply purchasing locked $SOL at a discount has been answered. Combined with Solana ETFs under the ’33 Act likely being approved in October, $SOL is poised for outperformance into year-end as the third crypto asset with a structural funnel to TradFi flows after $BTC and $ETH.