Niche players rejoice—Hyperliquid NFTs rise against the trend?
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Niche players rejoice—Hyperliquid NFTs rise against the trend?
Victory of the diamond hands?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Cookie
Since mid-last year, NFTs have gradually moved away from "classical value standards." Elements such as image content, community, and traditional brand-building narratives—once used to assess the value of conventional PFP NFTs—have largely become ineffective. This trend peaked toward the end of last year and the beginning of this year, with examples like Kaito surging to over 10 ETH, several Cosmos ecosystem projects on Stargaze experiencing explosive growth, and MegaETH sparking significant market controversy.
Many players refer to these "FTs in NFT clothing" as "utility NFTs," most directly reflected by the fact that these NFTs often come from projects preparing to launch tokens, using NFTs as an initial move to warm up the ecosystem, build communities, or directly sell token allocations.
So when I noticed that NFTs on Hyperliquid were gaining some traction—and even carrying a bit of that "classic vibe"—I was somewhat surprised...
Organic Growth Without an NFT Marketplace
The most anticipated Hyperliquid NFT marketplace currently is Drip.Trade(@drip__trade), scheduled to launch on February 27. Although the product hasn't gone live yet, its platform token $JPEG was already distributed days ago. At its peak, the market cap approached $20 million, and currently stands at around $7.5 million.
The airdrop targets the two hottest NFT projects on Hyperliquid right now: Wealthy Hypio Babies and K-16 a.k.a KARU, both currently on Base and not yet bridged to HyperEVM.
So how are transactions handled for projects already on HyperEVM? Currently, trading occurs on Net Protocol, a tool developed by OpenSea protocol engineer aspyn, which already supports some native Hyperliquid NFT trades.
This kind of organic, unregulated growth reminds me of the early days of Ordinals in early 2023, when we were using Excel spreadsheets as order books for OTC trading...
Additionally, minting NFTs on Hyperliquid remains as cumbersome as early Ordinals operations. To describe the process briefly: first withdraw USDC to the Arbitrum network:
After deposit confirmation, buy $HYPE via the HYPE/USDC trading pair:
Once purchased, return to the Portfolio page and click Transfer to EVM under your position to move $HYPE to HyperEVM.
With $HYPE on HyperEVM, you can then use it to mint new projects.
Which NFT Projects Are Currently Leading?
First is obviously Wealthy Hypio Babies(@HypioHL), currently with a floor price around 0.9 ETH, down slightly from its all-time high above 1 ETH. However, given the broader market downturn, this pullback is understandable.
Looking at the floor price chart, Hypio's overall trajectory has been steadily upward, though it went through about a month-long consolidation period before launching its second surge to new highs earlier this month.
Hypio indeed has the strongest community among current Hyperliquid NFT projects, a fact reflected clearly in its price and trading volume. Additionally, holding Hypio has already yielded multiple airdrops, including $JPEG from the upcoming Hyperliquid NFT marketplace Drip.Trade, Hyperliquid’s popular native meme token $BUDDY, and $SENT from Sentiment, an AI Agent platform on Hyperliquid. Upcoming airdrops may include $Neko from DeFAI Swarm on Hyperliquid and $SPR from Supurr (formerly Buffer Finance), a short-term options platform on Hyperliquid.
The second major project under Hypio is K-16 a.k.a KARU(@karu__16), whose value proposition is similar to Hypio’s.
However, KARU's price journey hasn’t been as smooth as Hypio’s. After quickly breaking past 0.1 ETH at launch, it sharply declined within a week, then gradually recovered from the bottom to reach new highs—a true test of resilience.
The last one is TinyHyperCats(@tinyhypercats), the first native NFT project on HyperEVM. As it's native, it currently requires trading via Net Protocol mentioned earlier, with a current floor price of 17 $HYPE.
What New Projects Are Worth Watching?
Hypers(@HypersOnHL)
This project was mentioned in an article about new NFT projects at the end of last year, generating significant buzz back then. It's finally launching and will begin minting on Drip.Trade upon its release on February 27. Total supply is 8,888, with a mint price between 2 and 2.5 $HYPE.
PiP(@PiPonHL)
Although it doesn’t have many followers, the actual response has been stronger than follower count suggests. There isn’t much information available yet, but the team continues to post regular updates.
Catbal(@CatCabal_hl)
Similar to PiP, but with tighter integration into the broader ecosystem—for example, they are also eligible to receive the $BUDDY airdrop.
Rekt Gang(@rekt_gang)
This project had prior community collaborations with Hyperliquid 2–3 years ago, including giveaways and Spaces, and also runs a Hyperliquid validator node. However, their core mission is exploring multi-chain ecosystems, meaning they already hold NFT assets on other chains—a key point to note.
Conclusion
The recent uptick in Hyperliquid NFT activity is primarily driven by Western NFT enthusiasts entering the space. Why are these international NFT players choosing this chain for speculation? Perhaps the price action of $HYPE has evoked nostalgic memories of diamond-handed NFT holders receiving substantial rewards—exactly what happened with Wealthy Hypio Babies, K-16 a.k.a KARU, and TinyHyperCats. The recent small wave of meme coin presales on AVAX carries a similar sentiment.
If the small-image trend on Hyperliquid continues, more new projects will inevitably emerge overnight. However, given the current high uncertainty in the overall market, careful evaluation of community strength and partnership depth is essential when minting new projects. Remember to cherish your $HYPE.
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