HYPE Hits Record $90.92 as Hyperliquid Opens Manual Borrowing Against HYPE and Bitcoin
Until this week, holding HYPE on Hyperliquid meant choosing between two options: leave it sitting in a wallet doing nothing, or feed it into the platform’s automated portfolio-margin system and accept whatever terms that system set. On September 18, the exchange gave its users a third path, and traders responded by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into it within a single day.
The new feature, called manual borrowing, lets users post HYPE or bitcoin as collateral to borrow stablecoins — specifically USDC and USDT — directly, with each borrowed position funded by another participant supplying that asset rather than created through platform-level credit. HYPE collateral carries a loan-to-value ratio of 65% and a liquidation threshold of 82.5%; bitcoin collateral is more conservatively capped at a 50% loan-to-value ratio with a 75% liquidation threshold. Borrowed stablecoins accrue interest hourly based on utilization, and suppliers of USDC or USDT earn yield on what they lend out, while the collateral assets themselves — HYPE and BTC — do not earn interest while pledged.
The launch numbers were immediate and large. Hyperliquid’s own account confirmed the day-one scale directly:
Roughly $269 million in USDC and USDT was borrowed against HYPE and bitcoin collateral on day one, an adoption pace that suggests significant pent-up demand among Hyperliquid’s user base for a way to access stablecoin liquidity without having to sell their token holdings outright.
The price response was just as sharp. HYPE climbed to a record high of $90.92 as the feature went live, and continued pushing higher in the following day’s trading, touching levels above $92 and, according to some trackers, briefly above $94. The rally reflects a broader dynamic playing out across the sector this month: assets that unlock new utility for collateral holders — letting them borrow against a position instead of liquidating it — tend to see immediate demand from holders who no longer have to choose between holding for upside and accessing cash.
Manual borrowing sits alongside, rather than replaces, Hyperliquid’s existing automated portfolio-margin infrastructure, which has been running for roughly six months and already lets eligible accounts use BTC and HYPE as collateral for trading perpetuals, spot markets, and outcome markets. The new manual option gives standard and unified account holders more direct control over their borrowing terms, a structural addition that positions Hyperliquid’s exchange token less as a pure speculative asset and more as usable collateral within its own ecosystem.
Whether that utility becomes a durable driver of demand — as opposed to a short-lived catalyst around the launch itself — will depend on whether borrowing volumes stay near their opening-day pace in the weeks ahead, and whether the platform can manage collateral risk if HYPE’s price were to reverse sharply while large positions remain borrowed against it.
Trading on margin and borrowing against volatile collateral carries the risk of liquidation and rapid loss, and this article does not constitute financial advice. Readers wanting a plain-language look at how leverage and liquidation mechanics work more broadly can read coin680’s explainer on the risks of Bitcoin in the Bitcoin Academy.