Crypto tokens rally as SEC expands onchain stock markets

Crypto tokens tied to trading and tokenization gained as a five-year SEC exemption shifted attention from Congress to market venues.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token climbed to a record $96 on Monday, lifting its market value above $20 billion, according to market figures cited in the trading update. The move put the rally’s center of gravity around exchange infrastructure and tokenized-asset plumbing, not the long tail of smaller speculative coins.

HYPE sets a $96 record

The strongest gains were concentrated in assets linked to trading systems and real-world asset tokenization. Uniswap’s UNI rose roughly 40% over the past week, Avalanche’s AVAX gained about 47%, Ethena’s ENA advanced about 50%, and Ondo’s ONDO added roughly 26% over the same period.

Bitcoin also moved higher, touching an eight-month high above $86,000, but the pattern was narrower than a broad altcoin cycle. The tokens leading the move are tied to venues, settlement layers, synthetic-dollar systems or tokenized securities, giving the rally a more specific regulatory and market-structure angle.

Hyperliquid stands out because HYPE’s record price and market value above $20 billion give it a larger role in how traders price decentralized perpetuals and venue revenue. If activity follows the token price, the protocol’s order-book depth, execution quality and risk controls will matter more than brand momentum.

SEC exemption replaces stalled bill

The regulatory trigger came last week, when the Securities and Exchange Commission granted a five-year exemption allowing qualifying venues to trade tokenized US stocks onchain. The decision arrived days after the Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate, leaving agencies to work with existing authority instead of waiting for new statute.

Ayesha Kiani, chief operating officer of Monarq Asset Management, described the shift as an agency-led path for crypto rules. “If anything, we’re seeing the SEC and CFTC move more aggressively within their existing authority to provide a framework for the sector,” Kiani said.

“That doesn’t replace the durability of legislation, but it does give the market greater confidence that the regulatory environment is continuing to move forward rather than reverting to uncertainty,” Kiani said. Her point frames the main trade-off: exemptions can move faster than Congress, but they can also leave venues exposed to later rule changes.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pressing ahead with a digital-asset agenda, according to Kiani’s framing. For trading tokens, that matters because derivatives, spot venues and tokenized securities sit across different regulatory lanes, and projects may benefit only if they can satisfy the conditions attached to each lane.

Rates backdrop meets token plumbing

Carlos Guzman, GSR’s vice president of research, linked the move to broader risk appetite across technology assets. “The rally is occurring amid a broader risk-on shift, with tech equities rising in concert,” Guzman said.

Guzman also tied the timing to last week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, saying the Fed announced it would hike rates and that the outcome had been widely expected. “While hawkish, the move was widely expected and instead appears to have removed some uncertainty about the rate path for the rest of the year,” he said.

That macro overlay is important for crypto tokens whose cash flows, collateral demand or user activity depend on trading volume. If investors read the rate path as more settled, higher-beta technology and digital-asset exposures can attract capital even when policy is not easing.

The open question is whether the rally is being driven by durable usage or by positioning around a regulatory headline. Weekly token gains of 26% to 50% create room for reversals if volumes fail to confirm higher valuations or if the exemption proves narrower than traders expect.

Tokenized stocks test venues

If the SEC exemption becomes a workable template, the global macro effect would be a tighter link between US equity exposure and onchain liquidity. For Hyperliquid, that path would turn attention to whether exchange-linked token demand can translate into deeper markets; for the industry, it would pressure decentralized venues, custodians and brokers to compete on compliance as much as speed.

If the Clarity Act’s failure leaves the market dependent on agency discretion, the macro effect would be a more fragile risk premium across digital assets. Hyperliquid would remain exposed to shifts in trader confidence, while tokenization projects such as Ondo and venue tokens such as UNI would trade more on exemption details than on broad crypto adoption.

If risk appetite cools as rates stay higher for longer, the same tokens could become a test of whether infrastructure narratives can survive weaker flows. The next data point is not another slogan about tokenization, but whether qualifying venues can list tokenized US stocks at scale under the five-year window.