Grayscale says the crypto market is increasingly rewarding tokens with real fundamentals, and financial protocols led by Hyperliquid (HYPE) are pulling far ahead of meme coins.

The asset manager attributes the divide to a crypto bear market and rising institutional adoption. Both forces are separating revenue-generating projects from speculative tokens with little underlying value.

Why the Crypto Market Rewards Fundamentals Now

Grayscale built its case with its Crypto Sectors framework, a set of indexes developed with FTSE Russell. The system sorts more than 150 protocols by function and is reassessed each quarter. Grayscale’s recent research groups tokens by what they do, not the story around them.

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The Financials Crypto Sector covers protocols that deliver financial transactions and services on-chain. Their fundamentals track the adoption of stablecoins, tokenized assets, and other blockchain use cases.

Stablecoin settlement volume recently hit fresh records, reinforcing that demand. The gap widens in a downturn, when tokens without revenue fall hardest.

Hyperliquid Pulls Ahead as Memecoins Fade

Since the start of 2024, the Financials Crypto Sector has gained roughly 15%, while the Consumer and Culture Crypto Sector has fallen about 75%. That leaves financial tokens ahead of their consumer peers by about 90 percentage points.

By contrast, the lagging sector is dominated by meme coins like Dogecoin (DOGE), the 2013 original, which Grayscale says now make up around 85% of its market value.

Grayscale singles out Hyperliquid as the standout. The on-chain exchange routes trading fees into an assistance fund that buys back HYPE, tying the token’s value to actual platform usage.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token has climbed from an all-time low near $3.81 in late 2024 to a June 2026 peak of $76.70. It traded near $63 on Monday, up about 29% on the year, and ranks 10th by market value.

“Crypto markets are rewarding tokens with strong fundamentals. These include Hyperliquid and other leading financial applications of blockchains,” Grayscale noted.

Some fund managers make the same case. Tushar Jain, chief investment officer of Multicoin Capital, says leading protocols should be judged like companies. His firm holds HYPE and sees Hyperliquid leading in on-chain derivatives.

“Solana is a business. Hyperliquid is a business. They are meant to go and generate cash flow, and that is the primary thing that gives those tokens value…” Jain said in a recent interview.

Other revenue-focused projects have leaned into the same shift, including a recent revenue-funded token burn. Whether that lead holds may hinge on consumer tokens building real income. For now, Grayscale’s data suggests fundamentals, not speculation, are setting the market’s winners apart.

Source: BeInCrypto