Despite crypto market sell-off, Hyperliquid tops weekly gainers with 17% surge

• Institutional partnerships involving ICE, trade[XYZ] and Kraken parent Payward helped Hyperliquid top the weekly gainers with a 17% rise.
• Renewed market-wide selling pushed MemeCore down 10.7% in the past 24 hours, though it retained a 9% gain for the week.
• Strengthening institutional demand for blockchain interoperability and tokenised financial infrastructure supported Quant's 7% advance.

Pressure across the wider crypto market has not prevented Hyperliquid (HYPE), MemeCore (M) and Quant (QNT) from ranking among this week's strongest performers, with respective gains of 17%, 9% and 7%.

Crypto futures liquidations reached $1.67 billion as the market declined on Friday, including $562 million in Bitcoin liquidations. Global crypto market capitalisation fell to $2.69 trillion, while Bitcoin (BTC) briefly slipped below $77,000 before rebounding towards support at $78,000, a level it has maintained for over a month.

Major altcoins also came under selling pressure over the past 24 hours: Ethereum (ETH) declined 3.9%, XRP shed 3.8% and BNB retreated 6.3%.

A $6.3 billion hack on crypto exchange Binance coincided with the fresh weakness and set off widespread liquidations across the crypto market. Friday's decline in technology shares added to the selling pressure, as the S&P 500 fell 2.2% and the Nasdaq lost 3.6%.

Even as losses extend into the weekend, six cryptocurrencies stand out as this week's leading gainers despite the market downturn.

Best-performing cryptocurrencies: Why are HYPE, M and QNT leading weekly gains?

Hyperliquid (HYPE): What is driving its weekly lead?

Weekly gain: 17%

A 17% weekly advance puts Hyperliquid at the top of the rankings, as institutional appetite for its HIP-3 perpetual futures markets grows alongside partnerships with traditional finance firms.

A strategic investment in Trade[XYZ] was announced on Thursday by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Trade[XYZ] is a leading deployer of real-world asset (RWA) perpetual markets on Hyperliquid.

Subject to regulatory approvals, the agreement gives ICE exclusive responsibility for operating Trade[XYZ]'s regulated markets and establishing a dedicated US trading and clearing structure. Perpetual contracts tracking equities, commodities, foreign exchange and other assets will be available on the proposed platform.

Before this announcement, Hyperliquid had confirmed that Kraken parent Payward plans to become its first CFTC-regulated HIP-3* deployer. Bitnomial would handle market deployment, clearing and settlement under the proposed arrangement, which could broaden US customers' access to on-chain perpetual futures.

These developments together underline the increasing institutional appetite for Hyperliquid's derivatives infrastructure.

At the time of writing, HYPE trades at $91 following a 1.5% rise over the past 24 hours.

MemeCore (M): How are cross-chain capabilities expanding?

Weekly gain: 9%

With a 9% weekly advance, MemeCore followed Hyperliquid as the meme-focused blockchain broadens its cross-chain capabilities.

Transfers of the network's native M token and stablecoins, including USDC and USDT, to BNB Chain and Base are now possible following its recent integration of LayerZero and Stargate.

By allowing MemeCore assets to move between multiple blockchain ecosystems, the integration widens access and potential liquidity.

The wider crypto sell-off has nevertheless left M 10.7% lower over the past 24 hours.

Quant (QNT): Is institutional interest supporting prices?

Weekly gain: 7%

Growing institutional appetite for blockchain interoperability and tokenised financial infrastructure continued to support Quant's price, helping it advance 5%.

In late September, The Clearing House named Quant as the technology provider for its On-Chain Money Initiative. The interoperable payments network is intended to enable the clearing and settlement of tokenised bank deposits.

At the time of writing, QNT has declined 1.2% over the past 24 hours.

Pepe (PEPE): Can weekly gains withstand selling pressure?

Weekly gain: 5%

A 5% rise over the past 7 days extended Pepe's positive weekly performance. A comparable advance came last week after Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong tweeted a frog-themed Pepe meme.

Despite renewed macroeconomic pressure and the wider sell-off, the popular memecoin has kept its weekly return in positive territory.

Thursday's Binance exploit hit PEPE particularly hard. With the hack continuing to pressure its price, the memecoin has fallen 5.6% over the past 24 hours.

LEO Token (LEO): What benefits does the utility token offer?

Weekly gain: 4.1%

A 4.9% rise over the past week marked LEO Token's advance. Issued by crypto exchange Bitfinex, the utility token offers trading fee discounts and other benefits throughout its ecosystem.

A buyback-and-burn mechanism is another feature of the token: iFinex commits at least 27% of its monthly consolidated revenues to buying back tokens and permanently taking them out of circulation.

At the time of writing, LEO has slipped 0.7% over the past 24 hours.