Bitwise BHYP vs Grayscale GHYP vs 21Shares THYP and Which Hyperliquid ETF Wins

Three asset managers have now filed competing spot ETFs for Hyperliquid's HYPE token, and the race to be first to market is tightening into a multi-week window. Bitwise was earliest with BHYP in September 2025, Grayscale entered in March 2026 with GHYP, and 21Shares filed its second amendment for THYP on April 14, 2026. All three want the same prize. They want to be the first US-listed product that gives institutional investors regulated spot exposure to a pure DeFi protocol token rather than a Layer-1 chain or a payment network.

The interesting part is that the three filings are not interchangeable. They diverge on listing venue, custodian structure, staking architecture, and management fee, and those differences map directly to which kind of institutional allocator picks up each product.

How the Three HYPE ETF Filings Stack Up

The fastest way to see the race is to put the three products on the same table. Some fields are confirmed in the public S-1s. Others have been left blank or marked as "to be determined" by the issuer pending final SEC comment, and the table reflects that honestly.

The pattern in the disclosure gap is itself informative. Bitwise has had the longest runway with the SEC and has already locked in fee, staking ratio, and a final updated S-1 in April 2026, which is what an issuer does when it expects to launch within weeks rather than quarters. Grayscale and 21Shares both have more open variables, which is typical for issuers still working through SEC staff comments on the staking question.

What Each Filing Actually Says

Bitwise BHYP. Filed September 2025 and updated with an amended S-1 in April 2026, the Bitwise fund is the most operationally detailed of the three. The product lists on NYSE Arca, custodies HYPE with Anchorage Digital, and stakes a substantial portion of holdings through Anchorage and additional staking agents. After the 0.67% management fee and staking operational costs, approximately 85% of staking rewards flow back to net asset value, giving shareholders both price exposure and on-chain yield inside a single regulated wrapper. The 0.67% fee sits below the Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF and above Bitwise's own Bitcoin ETF, which puts it in the standard pricing band for an alt-asset staking ETF. Phemex's reporting on the Bitwise BHYP filing covers the structure in detail, and the recent CoinDesk write-up on the updated S-1 frames why analysts now treat a launch as likely within the current SEC review window.

Grayscale GHYP. Filed with the SEC in March 2026 for a Nasdaq listing, the Grayscale product was the second to enter the race. Its most consequential update came on April 20, 2026, when Grayscale amended the filing to replace Coinbase with Anchorage Digital Bank as custodian. That swap matters because Anchorage holds an OCC national trust charter, which gives the fund qualified-custodian status under federal banking law without relying on a state-chartered custodian. The Grayscale filing keeps staking as an option but explicitly conditions it on regulatory approval, which is how the issuer signals that yield distribution will follow SEC comment rather than precede it. The fee remains undisclosed. The Crypto Times coverage of the original March filing is the cleanest source for the timing.

21Shares THYP. The 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF received its second amended S-1 on April 14, 2026, setting the ticker THYP for a Nasdaq listing. The product uses a joint custody model with Anchorage Digital Bank and BitGo Bank & Trust holding HYPE in parallel, and contracts Figment Inc. to stake between 30% and 70% of the trust's HYPE holdings. The exact staking ratio is set by a proprietary model that balances expected yield against liquidity and redemption risk, which is the most flexible staking architecture of the three filings. Fee and net staking yield share are still to be disclosed. The joint custody arrangement is the structural feature institutions will notice. It removes single-custodian concentration risk at the cost of slightly higher operational complexity.

The Listing Venue Question Is Not Cosmetic

Two of the three funds will trade on Nasdaq. One will trade on NYSE Arca. That choice is not cosmetic, and it has subtle implications for liquidity and creation/redemption mechanics.

NYSE Arca, where Bitwise's BHYP will list, has been the venue of choice for most spot crypto ETFs since 2024, including the BlackRock and Fidelity spot Bitcoin products. The Arca authorized participant network is therefore deepest for crypto, with infrastructure already in place for in-kind creations, NAV publication, and surveillance sharing agreements with crypto spot exchanges. That track record translates into tighter spreads and faster price discovery in the early weeks of trading.

Nasdaq, where GHYP and THYP will list, is no slouch and has hosted other large crypto-adjacent products, but its authorized participant ecosystem for spot crypto creations is newer. The trade-off works in Nasdaq's favor on retail distribution. Nasdaq's retail brand recognition and integration with discount broker platforms can drive higher individual-investor volume in the first month. That is the cohort that turned GBTC into a $35 billion vehicle before its ETF conversion.

For institutional desks, the Arca infrastructure usually wins the cold open. For retail-skewed flows, Nasdaq typically catches up by week three or four.

Where Each Fund Actually Has an Edge

The three filings are not competing for the same exact investor. They are competing for different slices of the institutional and advisor market, which is why all three are likely to launch and survive rather than one absorbing the other two.

Bitwise's edge is speed and yield clarity. Filing first gave Bitwise the longest SEC review window, and the April 2026 amendment locked in a final fee and a published staking economics structure. For institutional allocators who need to model expected return inside a portfolio construction tool, BHYP is the only one of the three where every input is already known. The 0.67% fee and 85% staking pass-through let an analyst write a clean expected-return assumption today, while the other two filings still require placeholder estimates that any portfolio-construction model will mark as low-confidence inputs.

Grayscale's edge is brand and RIA distribution. Grayscale spent a decade building advisor relationships through GBTC and ETHE, and that distribution network does not disappear with a new ticker. For a registered investment advisor who already runs Grayscale exposure in client portfolios, adding GHYP to the model is operationally trivial. It uses the same custodian (Anchorage, after the April 20 swap), the same sponsor, and likely the same custody and reporting workflow that the advisor has been using since the GBTC conversion. The brand premium is real even if the fee comes in higher.

21Shares' edge is operational redundancy and global track record. 21Shares has been running European crypto ETPs since 2018 and has the longest live track record of any HYPE ETF issuer on staking-integrated crypto products. The joint custody between Anchorage and BitGo, combined with Figment's established staking infrastructure on multiple chains, gives THYP the most institutionally conservative operational profile of the three. For a pension fund or endowment whose investment committee asks "what happens if Anchorage has an incident in 2027," THYP is the only filing with an answer that does not require unwinding the position.

What HYPE Being the ETF Underlying Actually Implies

Spot ETFs already exist for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and a handful of other tokens that the SEC and CFTC have classified as commodities. HYPE is a different category. It is the governance and fee-capture token of a single decentralized exchange protocol, not a Layer-1 chain that hosts a broader ecosystem and not a payment-rail asset. If any of these three filings clear, HYPE becomes the first pure DeFi-protocol token to get a regulated spot wrapper in the US market.

That distinction matters for what comes next. Approval validates a category of ETF the SEC has not yet greenlit, which puts protocol tokens like Aave, Uniswap, Pendle, Curve, and Lido in the next-in-line position. Asset managers will not wait to see all three HYPE ETFs trading before filing their next batch. They will file the moment the first HYPE approval is announced, which is why the yellow.com analysis of the HYPE ETF rush treats the BHYP/GHYP/THYP race as the opening shot of a broader DeFi ETF cycle rather than a self-contained event.

For HYPE specifically, the ETF flow set-up is a stronger demand signal than the price action alone suggests. Three issuers do not file competing products on the same asset unless their distribution teams are confident there is institutional appetite waiting. The 0.67% fee Bitwise published is also a tell. Issuers do not undercut their own Ethereum-product fees on a smaller-cap underlying unless they expect meaningful AUM.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which HYPE ETF will get SEC approval first?

Bitwise BHYP is the strongest candidate by review timing because it filed earliest and amended its S-1 in April 2026 with final fee and staking terms. The SEC review window from the original September 2025 filing puts the outside decision date in the late spring or early summer of 2026. Grayscale and 21Shares are running roughly six to eight months behind on the staff comment cycle.

Does staking inside the ETF affect the HYPE token price?

Yes, indirectly. Staking pulls HYPE out of liquid circulation and locks it inside the trust, which reduces available supply on exchanges. The Bitwise filing alone targets a "substantial portion" of holdings for staking, and the 21Shares filing names a 30-70% staking ratio range. Across three approved ETFs, the cumulative supply lockup could be material to thin-float dynamics.

Why are all three using Anchorage Digital as custodian?

Anchorage is the only US crypto-native custodian holding an OCC national trust charter, which grants automatic qualified-custodian status under federal banking law. For an ETF issuer, that charter eliminates a layer of SEC custody-rule risk that a state-chartered custodian would introduce. Coinbase Custody, which Grayscale initially named, is qualified under New York trust law but does not carry the federal OCC designation.

What is the difference between buying HYPE directly and holding the ETF?

Holding HYPE directly gives you the underlying token, the ability to stake natively, and the optionality to use HYPE inside the Hyperliquid ecosystem. The ETF gives you wrapped price exposure inside a regulated brokerage account, with the ETF sponsor handling staking on your behalf and capturing a management fee. The two are not substitutes. They are complementary products for different account types, and they are likely to trade with a small basis between them once an ETF is live. Phemex's explainer on what Hyperliquid is and how the chain works walks through the underlying token mechanics in detail.

Bottom Line

All three filings are likely to launch eventually because their distribution targets do not fully overlap. The order matters less than the cumulative AUM. Bitwise BHYP wins the first-mover institutional flow on the strength of its locked-in fee and staking economics. Grayscale GHYP captures the advisor and RIA channel where brand and existing workflows matter more than a 10 basis point fee gap. 21Shares THYP collects the most operationally conservative institutional money on the strength of joint custody and Figment's staking track record. The catalysts to watch are the SEC final decision on BHYP in the May-June window, the fee disclosure from Grayscale and 21Shares once their staff comment cycles close, and the first month of AUM data after launch, which will reveal if HYPE behaves more like ETH (heavy ETF accumulation) or more like a thinner-float altcoin where the ETF wrapper struggles to attract sustained inflows.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always conduct your own research before making trading decisions.