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

MarketsHyperliquid, Uniswap and Worldcoin buck crypto slump as traders chase AI, DeFi trendsA handful of tokens continued their run while bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market stalled after the early week bounce.By Krisztian Sandor|Edited by Stephen Alpher Jun 16, 2026, 8:20 p.m. 2 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on SummaryShowHYPE, UNI, WLD posted double-digit gains while bitcoin and most of the crypto market drifted lower.Hyperliquid is benefiting from enthusiasm around onchain exchanges, while Worldcoin remains one of the market's most popular AI-linked bets.Uniswap rallied after a major bank argued decentralized finance (DeFi) could become one of crypto's biggest growth sectors.Bitcoin BTC$65,785.39 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 assetsSome 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 bec…

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

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