Hyperliquid, Uniswap and Worldcoin buck crypto slump as traders chase AI, DeFi trends

Bitcoin BTC$65,780.42 and the broader crypto market has cooled off on Tuesday, but a handful of tokens continued their surge.

Hyperliquid's HYPE, Uniswap's UNI and Worldcoin's WLD all posted double-digit gains, extending rallies that have made them some of this week's standout performers.

HYPE surged as much as 13% to a fresh record above $76 before paring some gains. The token is now up nearly 200% in 2026, making it one of the best-performing large-cap crypto assets this year.

Hyperliquid operates a blockchain-based exchange that allows users to trade perpetual futures through an onchain order book. Investors increasingly see the platform as a potential challenger to traditional exchanges, with ambitions extending beyond crypto into tokenized stocks, commodities and other assets

Some observers also speculated that Hyperliquid's growing relationship with Coinbase could deepen after making Circle's USDC the primary trading pair on the platform. Under the arrangement, part of the revenue generated from U.S. Treasury securities backing USDC will be used to purchase HYPE tokens.

Worldcoin's WLD token gained 12%, pushing its monthly advance to roughly 180%.

The project, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has become one of crypto's most direct ways to express a bullish view on artificial intelligence (AI). The token has benefited from renewed enthusiasm around AI-related investments following the strong market debut of SpaceX, which also owns AI company xAI, and growing expectations that OpenAI could eventually pursue a public listing.

Decetralized exchange Uniswap's UNI token surged another 18% after Standard Chartered initiated coverage on Monday with a highly bullish long-term outlook on the protocol.

Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's head of digital asset research, argued that decentralized finance (DeFi) could become one of crypto's biggest growth stories as tokenized stocks, bonds and other traditional assets move onchain.

In the report, Kendrick estimated the amount of assets actively used in DeFi could increase 37-fold by the end of the decade and sees Uniswap, the largest decentralized exchange, as one of the clearest beneficiaries.

He initiated coverage with a $100 price target for UNI by 2030, implying roughly 30 times upside from current levels.