Grayscale appears to be laying groundwork for its next phase of expansion, quietly signaling interest in crypto assets that sit outside the usual Bitcoin and Ethereum spotlight.
Recent registrations filed in Delaware point to potential exchange-traded products tied to BNB and Hyperliquid, suggesting the firm is exploring how far institutional crypto exposure can stretch in the coming cycle.
Key Takeaways
Grayscale registered Delaware trusts tied to BNB and Hyperliquid
The move signals early exploration, not guaranteed ETF launches
Hyperliquid’s inclusion highlights growing institutional interest in DeFi infrastructure
These filings, made under CSC Delaware Trust Company, do not place any products on public markets. Instead, they establish the legal shell that asset managers typically prepare before engaging with federal regulators. In practice, it is an early move – but one that often hints at future intent.
An early step, but a familiar one
In the ETF process, Delaware trust registrations are often the first visible breadcrumb. They allow issuers to define a fund’s structure well ahead of submitting formal paperwork to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. While many such trusts never become tradable ETFs, they are widely viewed as a prerequisite for any serious attempt.
For Grayscale, the move comes shortly after progress on its multi-asset products, reinforcing the view that the firm is preparing for a market where institutions want exposure beyond a narrow set of crypto majors.
Why BNB is back on the radar
A potential BNB-linked ETF would arrive at a moment of transition for the BNB Chain ecosystem. According to its recently published roadmap, the network is targeting substantial performance upgrades in 2026, including dramatically faster confirmation times and a major increase in transaction throughput.
Those technical ambitions may help reposition BNB in the eyes of institutional investors, shifting attention from its exchange roots toward the underlying network’s utility. Grayscale’s exploratory move suggests that, despite regulatory sensitivities, BNB is once again being evaluated as a candidate for structured investment products.
Hyperliquid’s jump from DeFi to TradFi interest
The more unexpected signal came from Hyperliquid. Best known as the largest perpetual futures decentralized exchange, Hyperliquid has built a reputation for resilience during periods of extreme market stress.
Since its token launch in 2024, the platform has processed massive liquidation volumes without suffering the outages that have repeatedly hit centralized exchanges. That operational track record appears to be catching the attention of institutional allocators looking beyond spot tokens and toward revenue-generating on-chain infrastructure.
An ETF tied to Hyperliquid would represent a notable departure from traditional crypto products, potentially offering exposure to decentralized derivatives as an asset class rather than just price movement.
Regulation may be creating room to experiment
The timing of these filings is unlikely to be accidental. Crypto ETF sentiment has improved following steady inflows into existing trust products, including Grayscale’s XRP-related offerings, which have grown assets under management without major redemptions.
At the same time, lawmakers are expected to revisit bipartisan market structure proposals that could clarify how a wider range of digital assets are regulated. Such changes would not guarantee approval, but they could reduce uncertainty for products linked to non-traditional tokens and protocols.
Reading between the lines
Taken together, the Delaware registrations point to a strategic recalibration. Grayscale appears to be preparing for a market where institutional investors are no longer satisfied with simple exposure to legacy crypto assets, but are instead looking for access to high-activity networks and core DeFi infrastructure.
Whether the BNB and Hyperliquid trusts ever advance to full ETF applications remains an open question. What is clearer is that Grayscale is positioning itself early, betting that 2026 could mark a broader institutional embrace of crypto assets that were once considered too niche or too complex for traditional markets.
