The financial firm is making HYPE its primary reserve asset as part of a broader move into DeFi.
Financial platform Lion Group Holding Ltd. (LGHL) on Wednesday announced it has secured a $600 million facility from ATW Partners to kickstart its HYPE Treasury.
Launched in December 2024, HYPE is the native token of the decentralized perpetual exchange and Layer 1 network Hyperliquid, which boasts a total value locked (TVL) of around $542 million, according to DeFiLlama.
“Hyperliquid represents a natural extension of LGHL’s existing derivatives business into decentralized markets, and reflects our conviction that decentralized on-chain execution is the future of trading,” said Wilson Wang, CEO of LGHL.
Wang added that LGHL views protocols like Hyperliquid as core building blocks for scalable decentralized finance (DeFi) systems.
Lion Group’s proposed HYPE Treasury is part of a broader on-chain initiative and will hold three main digital assets: HYPE, Solana (SOL), and Sui (SUI). The company plans to make HYPE its main reserve asset, according to a press release viewed by The Defiant. Meanwhile, SOL and SUI will be stored and staked by BitGo through a new partnership between the two companies.
HYPE is currently trading at around $38 with a market cap of $13.2 billion, up 50% over the past month. Meanwhile, following the announcement, LGHL stock is trading at $3.50, up 25.88% on the day.
This marks the second firm in as many days to reveal a HYPE reserve strategy – yesterday, digital ophthalmic tech company Eyenovia announced a $50 million investment for a HYPE treasury. The back-to-back moves signal growing interest in using crypto, especially on-chain native assets like HYPE, as modern treasury reserves.
LGHL expects its first $10.6 million in funding to close within 48 hours, the release noted. The company is also considering secondary listings on the Tokyo and Singapore stock exchanges, to “create the first HYPE treasury listed in Asia.”
The move comes amid a broader political shift toward crypto. In March, the Trump administration launched a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR). A Bitcoin reserve refers to an entity holding a stockpile of Bitcoin (BTC), similar to how nations hold gold or U.S. dollar reserves.
Since news of the initiative broke, the $600 million figure has drawn skepticism on social media. Popular trading account Anteater suggests the amount may be exaggerated, while Delphi researcher LTR called the company “grifters” in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Lion Group did not immediately respond to The Defiant’s request for comment.
