Grayscale has overhauled the custodial structure of its proposed Hyperliquid-linked exchange-traded fund, replacing Coinbase with Anchorage Digital Bank in an updated filing with U.S. regulators.
The April 20 amendment to the planned GHYP fund, which is seeking approval to list on Nasdaq, designates Anchorage as custodian while keeping Bank of New York Mellon as transfer agent. The filing confirms that any staking component remains subject to regulatory approval and would rely on CoinDesk Hyperliquid Benchmark Extended Rate data.
Regulatory positioning and custodial shift
The move marks a shift from a high-profile, publicly listed crypto company to the first federally chartered digital asset bank in the United States. Anchorage operates under the oversight of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, signaling Grayscale’s effort to align the product with traditional federal banking standards and potentially smooth its regulatory review.
The substitution underscores a broader industry trend toward custodians with deeper regulatory integration as digital asset products grow more complex and seek entry to mainstream markets.
Anchorage’s expanding role in digital finance
Anchorage, founded in 2017, previously served as a secondary custodian for portions of Grayscale’s bitcoin and ethereum trusts following its appointment in August, with Coinbase remaining the primary custodian for those trusts. Coinbase, however, has been removed entirely from the updated Hyperliquid ETF structure.
The custodial appointment comes as Anchorage is broadening its business lines, including:
- stablecoin infrastructure and settlement services for financial institutions
- token management and digital wealth services
- support for additional assets such as Tron, with plans to enable Tron staking after regulatory review
Anchorage’s expansion has been backed by a $100 million equity investment from Tether in February, valuing the company at $4.2 billion, up from $3 billion in 2021. The firm is reported to be exploring options to raise up to $400 million ahead of a possible public listing.
Hyperliquid etf details and market context
Grayscale’s Hyperliquid ETF is designed to track the performance of Hyperliquid, an on-chain derivatives protocol known as the largest perpetuals decentralized exchange by activity. The proposed fund would trade under the ticker GHYP if approved.
Hyperliquid remains unavailable in the United States but continues operating globally via a ring-fenced structure. Its foundation has funded a Washington, D.C.-based policy organization with a $29 million HYPE token grant to support decentralized finance advocacy.
The ETF plan is part of Grayscale’s broader expansion into digital asset products, including funds tied to BNB, Zcash, and Chainlink. Grayscale first filed for the Hyperliquid ETF on March 20, following similar product proposals from 21Shares and Bitwise submitted late last year.
Protocol growth and trading volumes
The amendment arrives as Hyperliquid shows rapid growth in trading activity, especially in tokenized real-world assets. The platform’s daily trading volume hit a record $5.4 billion in late March, up from an earlier record of $5.2 billion in early February.
Contracts tied to commodities such as oil and silver now represent more than two-thirds of daily volume on the protocol, pointing to demand that extends beyond purely speculative digital asset trading and toward exposure to traditional markets via on-chain instruments.
Staking option preserved amid shifting rules
The updated filing maintains the option to incorporate staking into the GHYP fund, with implementation contingent on regulatory clearance. The structure would use CoinDesk’s Hyperliquid benchmark data should staking be permitted.
Staking has gained regulatory momentum in recent years, with guidance clarifying when reward mechanisms do or do not create securities relationships. That change has opened the door for yield-generating strategies to be embedded in more fund structures and has already supported the growth of staking-enabled exchange-traded products, which have accumulated a sizable share of institutional inflows.
For GHYP, a green light for staking could add a yield component to the fund’s price exposure, potentially making it more competitive against non-yielding products and reinforcing demand for similar structures across the digital asset fund space.
Competitive response and market implications
Grayscale’s choice of a federally chartered custodian raises the bar for rival issuers pursuing complex crypto-linked products. Market watchers are likely to monitor whether competitors such as 21Shares and Bitwise adjust their pending Hyperliquid-related applications to highlight custodian regulatory status alongside fees and liquidity.
The shift indicates that, for this next wave of digital asset funds, the regulatory profile and operational robustness of the custodian may become as important a differentiator as product cost or tracking methodology, particularly for funds that look beyond bitcoin and ethereum and seek to incorporate features such as staking.
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