Hyperliquid (HYPE) Leads the Top 10 in August, Yet Smart Money is Short

Hyperliquid (HYPE) price has gained 13.99% in August, making it the strongest performer among the top 10 crypto assets this month. 

However, exchange-traded fund flows, large holder activity, and derivatives positioning now point in different directions.

HYPE Outpaces Bitcoin and Ethereum as ETF Demand Slows

CryptoRank data show HYPE up 13.99% for the month. This runs roughly 3.3 times Solana’s (SOL) 4.26% gain and 6.8 times Bitcoin’s (BTC) 2.07% uptick.

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XRP (XRP) is the only major asset in the red, down 5.98%. It has spent the month trailing its major peers while large holders kept buying.

The latest gain comes after a period of decline. HYPE fell 21.94% from its record high until early August, before rebounding. A 13.99% gain off a 21.94% drawdown still leaves the token short of its prior mark.

Meanwhile, institutional demand has yet to return in any sustained form. SoSoValue data shows that HYPE ETFs saw three consecutive weeks of outflows through July 31. 

Flows turned positive in the first two weeks of August. The recovery has since stalled, with no new inflows recorded since August 10.

Holders Show Mixed Behavior

Large holders moved in both directions this month. On-chain trackers recorded several wallets buying while others sold.

A wallet linked to Maven11 Capital withdrew 202,705 HYPE from OKX last week. Monetalis-linked wallets sold 3.72 million Uniswap (UNI) via Cumberland and bought 171,543 HYPE, worth $9.56 million, over the weekend.

FRESH WALLET ACCUMULATES 57,000 HYPEA fresh wallet accumulated and withdrew 57K $HYPE (~$3.36M) from Coinbase.Address: 0xD0515E4a385E7E7D2FA0D06104E6dA0DBaC09b1A pic.twitter.com/BXLjIcGCpM

— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) August 18, 2026

Selling ran in parallel. One whale sold 923,743 HYPE worth $53.02 million last week. 

“HyperLabs unlocked another 433,025 HYPE ($23.46M) and has been gradually depositing the tokens into exchanges, including Flowdesk and OKX, likely to sell,” Lookonchain reported in early August.

Sophisticated Traders Lean Short 

Derivatives positioning leans the other way. Nansen data show whales, smart traders, and public figures all net short. Funding stands at 0.00125% per hour, near 10.95% annualized, so longs currently pay shorts. 

Spot flows offer no tiebreaker. Nansen recorded $5.7 million in HYPE leaving exchanges over seven days, alongside heavy accumulation on centralized exchanges and over-the-counter across 30 days. 

Each dataset answers a different question, and none confirms the others. Renewed ETF creations would show institutional buyers returning. A shift in the whale cohort to net long would signal the same from derivatives. Neither has happened yet.

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