Circle Invests in Hyperliquid, Bitwise Seeks Stablecoin & Tokenization ETF

The race to dominate the fast-growing stablecoin and tokenization sectors intensified this week, with two major announcements highlighting how quickly institutional interest in on-chain assets is accelerating.

On Tuesday, stablecoin issuer Circle revealed that it has taken a direct stake in the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid. The company has purchased Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, and rolled out native USD Coin (USDC) support on the network’s smart-contract layer, HyperEVM. Circle is also weighing a role as a network validator, a move that would give it a voice in protocol governance and block validation.

The investment follows Hyperliquid’s recent push to develop its own U.S.-dollar-backed stablecoin, USDH, and comes amid heightened competition from other issuers. Hyperliquid, which launched its layer-1 blockchain less than a year ago, has already processed more than $330 billion in trading volume and currently has roughly 430 million HYPE tokens staked by validators such as Galaxy Digital, Flowdex, and the Hyper Foundation.

While Circle deepens its presence in decentralized finance, Bitwise Asset Management is seeking to bring stablecoin and tokenization exposure to traditional investors. The U.S. firm has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch the Bitwise Stablecoin & Tokenization ETF, an exchange-traded fund designed to track an index split evenly between public companies tied to stablecoins and crypto assets that power tokenization.

The fund’s equity component would cover businesses such as issuers, payment processors, and infrastructure providers, while its crypto sleeve would hold regulated exchange-traded products offering exposure to blockchains that enable stablecoin settlements and tokenized real-world assets. The index will be rebalanced quarterly, and no single crypto ETP will exceed 22.5% of holdings.

Both moves underscore how stablecoins and tokenized assets have become central narratives in digital finance. According to DefiLlama, the global stablecoin market has swelled to nearly $290 billion in 2025, up more than 20% since January, while the value of tokenized real-world assets such as bonds and credit has climbed to roughly $76 billion.

Analysts attribute much of the momentum to a friendlier U.S. regulatory climate following the passage of the GENIUS Act in July, which provided long-awaited clarity for dollar-backed digital assets. If approved, Bitwise’s ETF could debut as early as November, adding another regulated gateway for investors looking to capture the growth of on-chain finance.

Together, Circle’s network expansion and Bitwise’s ETF proposal signal a maturing market where stablecoins and tokenization are no longer fringe concepts but pillars of the next phase of decentralized and traditional finance alike.