Circle Announces HYPE Investment and USDC Launch on Hyperliquid

Circle has announced its expansion into the Hyperliquid ecosystem through its investment in HYPE and the launch of native USDC on HyperEVM, Hyperliquid’s native network. This comes ahead of the USDH launch, the network’s native stablecoin, which would be in direct competition with USDC.

Circle Invests In HYPE and Rolls Out USDC on Hyperliquid

In a blog post, the USDC issuer revealed that it has officially launched native USDC and CCTPv2 on the HyperEVM, expanding its stablecoin into the community. Circle also plans to enable deposits and CCTP interoperability for Hyperliquid USDC on HyperCore in the coming weeks.

Additionally, the stablecoin issuer announced that it is now a direct stakeholder in the Hyperliquid ecosystem, with its first HYPE token investments. The company also has a comprehensive program to work with HyperEVM builders in the community and is currently evaluating the possibility of becoming a Hyperliquid validator.

Notably, this comes ahead of the USDH stablecoin launch. USDH will be Hyperliquid’s native stablecoin and will be in direct competition with USDC. Meanwhile, it is also worth mentioning that USDC had been the primary stablecoin on the Hyperliquid DEX, but users had to bridge the stablecoin onto the DEX through Arbitrum.

Circle stated that over the past several months, its team has had the pleasure of getting to know the Hyperliquid core team and many builders developing on HyperEVM and HIP-3. The stablecoin issuer further described the community as one of the most impressive in the entire crypto ecosystem. The firm added that it is “Hyperliquid’s moment” and that they are thrilled to be supporting the community.

The HYPE price is down amid this announcement. TradingView data shows that the token is currently trading at around $53, down in the last 24 hours but up over 5% in the past week. According to a HYPE price forecast, the USDH launch could fuel a rally to the $72 target.

Major Milestone For The HYPE Ecosystem

In an X post, VanEck’s Chief Matthew Sigel described Circle’s expansion into Hyperliquid as a major milestone. He added that it is a “clear validation” of the HyperEVM’s status as an independent layer-1 network.

🚨Major milestone: Circle brings USDC natively to Hyperliquid. Clear validation of Hyperliquid’s status as an independent L1. https://t.co/zJRjHx6X1g
— matthew sigel, recovering CFA (@matthew_sigel) September 16, 2025

Meanwhile, crypto trader DeFiyst described Circle’s move as a last-ditch attempt to save the $5.3 billion USDC on Hyperliquid that could flow into the USDH stablecoin upon launch. He further noted that despite this amount of USDC being around 7% of its circulating supply, it is probably more like 12% to 15% of the stablecoin issuer’s revenues.

Last ditch attempt to save the $5.3bn USDC on Hyperliquid that will be swapped into USDH.
Legacy companies again acting too slow.
Despite this being only ~7% of USDC in circulation, it’s probably more like 12-15% of Circle’s revenues given the tithes paid to CEXs/Chains. https://t.co/XKkOSQSSYs
— DeFiyst (@DeFiyst) September 16, 2025

Market commentator Pajke highlighted the impact Circle’s expansion could have on the HYPE price. He stated that it could be the “tipping point of a rush” that finally sends HYPE to triple digits. He added that many builders and companies demonstrated their desire to build within the Hyperliquid ecosystem through the USDH governance vote.

As CoinGape reported, stablecoin issuers Paxos and Agora were among those who bid to issue the USDH stablecoin. Ethena also initially sent in a proposal, although the firm withdrew it before the vote took place.