HYPE Beats BTC and ETH in a Surprising Category: But Is This Really Good News?

The cryptocurrency market has been anything but stable lately and is still far from the bullish conditions some anticipated this month.

Despite the overall uncertainty, optimism continues to build around select tokens like Hyperliquid’s HYPE. Here’s why it rose to the top of a notable ranking and what it could indicate.

HYPE Overtakes BTC and ETH

Ki Young Ju (founder and CEO of CryptoQuant) recently said HYPE has become the most bullish cryptocurrency in analyst sentiment. He said the optimism stems primarily from its tokenomics, specifically fee-driven buybacks.

Hyperliquid uses a portion of the fees generated on its platform to repurchase HYPE coins from the open market. In theory, this creates a constant source of demand tied directly to the protocol’s activity and could support a potential price appreciation.

According to Ju’s analysis, BNB is the second-most bullish cryptocurrency, while Solana’s SOL comes in third. The sector’s undisputed leader, Bitcoin (BTC), ranks fourth, followed by Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP), Ethereum (ETH), and Uniswap (UNI).

Being the “most bullish” cryptocurrency in analyst sentiment essentially means market observers see HYPE as having one of the strongest upside cases based on its fundamentals, tokenomics, and other factors. This may sound like good news, but keep in mind that when sentiment becomes overwhelmingly positive, it can sometimes serve as a contrarian indicator, signaling that the asset may be overheating and becoming vulnerable to a short-term pullback. Commenting on the post was Ali Martinez, who said:

“From a counter-sentiment perspective, that’s bearish!”

HYPE Price Outlook and Predictions

As of press time, the asset trades just north of $80, down 18% from the all-time high of nearly $100 earlier this year. Late last week, Martinez spotted a fresh TD Sequential buy signal on the asset, noting that the previous signal preceded a rebound of around 11%.

“If this one gets similar follow-through, Hyperliquid could test $86, then resistance near $93,” he suggested.

For their part, Jelle said HYPE is testing the 100-day EMA and has bounced off it so far. The analyst revealed the price has plunged more than they initially expected, but added that the long-term picture remains unchanged as long as the June highs of around $76 hold.

Meanwhile, an anonymous investor supposedly made significant profits after trading HYPE. As CryptoPotato reported, the whale bought 257,928 HYPE toward the end of 2024, when the price of one token was around $3.50. Recently, the investor transferred more than 230,000 coins to Kraken, potentially locking in a profit of almost $20 million if an actual sale took place.