Three Strategies to Seize the Kinetiq kHYPE Opportunity

Three weeks ago, the long-awaited liquid staking protocol Kinetiq launched on HyperEVM and it's already the network's largest dApp.

The LST has vacuumed up over $880M in deposits, pushing the chain's TVL past $2 billion in the process, while the percent of HYPE staked continues to hit new all-time highs.

The protocol arrives tokenless – but with a points program. Given the protocol's parabolic growth, it's clear that many believe amassing kPoints will pay dividends down the line.

Day-one protocol support for kHYPE has been overwhelming, making it tough to identify the best kPoints hunting grounds. But we've zeroed in on a couple that offer superior strategies for maximizing kPoints.

What follows are three of the best yield strategies for maximizing your Kinetiq airdrop exposure — each offering different risk levels for farming kPoints while also potentially qualifying you for other airdrops and rewards.

Let's dig into what makes Kinetiq special, then break down three investing strategies leveraging kHYPE 👇

🚶‍♂️ Getting Started

◼️ What is Kinetiq?

To stand out among the LSTs already on HyperEVM, Kinetiq comes equipped with a handful of exciting, novel features. Beyond serving as the only Hyperliquid-exclusive LST and being instrumental in forming Hyperliquid's early community, the protocol's edge comes from three features:

• Fully Onchain Autonomous Delegation via StakeHub: While most staking providers manually select validators offchain, Kinetiq employs an automated scoring mechanism called StakeHub. StakeHub picks validators based on uptime and performance metrics, eliminating human error and bias.
• Launch’s Exchange-as-a-Service (EaaS): The pending HIP-3 release may be even more anticipated than Kinetiq's launch. When live, HIP-3 will enable anyone to permissionlessly launch perpetuals markets — think perps for stocks, commodities, or pre-IPO companies — by staking 1M HYPE. Since that's out of reach for many, Kinetiq has built Launch, a platform for crowdfunding perp markets via staked HYPE. Contributors receive exHYPE tokens (exchange-specific liquid staked HYPE) representing their pool share, potentially earning up to 50% of trading fees.
• iHYPE for Institutional Compliance: Lastly, Kinetiq has built a gated LST pool for institutions to liquid stake while remaining compliant. iHYPE is already employed by large players like Hyperion DeFi, the first Hyperliquid treasury company to allocate 10% of their initial acquisition to iHYPE.

◼️ How kPoints work

Points are distributed weekly to users actively using Kinetiq and kHYPE in DeFi. There are snapshots every Tuesday and distributions every Thursday, with 800K kPoints split weekly among participants.

◼️ Get started with kHYPE

To get involved, you'll need some kHYPE. On their website, you can stake HYPE directly or swap HYPE into kHYPE.

This can be done instantly from the homepage by selecting your method, as shown below. If your HYPE sits on HyperCore (Hyperliquid's exchange), you'll need to move it to HyperEVM. To do this, simply:

1. Connect your wallet on the Portfolio page of Hyperliquid’s dApp.
2. Press “EVM - Core” and transfer your HYPE over.
3. Then complete the steps above on Kinetiq's site.

PSA for stakers: Unstaking comes with a 7-day cooldown plus 0.10% fee on your kHYPE balance. Swapping faces similar fees, but there's no cooldown period.

🏃‍♂️ Strategy 1: The kHYPE Delta-Neutral Trade

Use Felix and HyperCore to short HYPE while staying delta-neutral and farming funding fees.

Outlined by Felix's founder, this strategy employs delta-neutral farming, a common perpetuals yield mechanism. While some know this from Ethena, delta-neutral means you're hedged both ways: if kHYPE pumps, your short loses but collateral gains; if kHYPE dumps, your collateral loses but short profits. The movements cancel out, leaving just funding yield — fees paid to keep perpetuals aligned with spot prices.

1. Deposit kHYPE on Felix Vanilla for that baseline ~2% staking yield.
2. Borrow USDhl (a HyperEVM-native stablecoin) against it (costs about ~2.5-5%).
3. Bridge and swap the USDhl for USDC on the HyperCore using Jumper.
4. Short HYPE on 1x leverage on HyperCore for ~11%.

You're pocketing ~8-10.5% APY since shorting HYPE futures earns 11% annualized, but you're paying ~2.5-5% to borrow USDhl. Subtract that, add the 2% staking yield, and you get 8-10.5% annually while qualifying for kPoints and Felix rewards.

The only downside: You must monitor funding rates. This strategy only works when rates are positive (paying shorts). If they flip negative or neutral, returns shrink or even cost you. You can monitor funding rates here.

🏃‍♀️ Strategy 2: The PT-kHYPE Loop

Use Pendle and Felix to loop your kHYPE exposure via PT-kHYPE and boost your yield.

For those comfortable with Pendle, the new PT-kHYPE market offers substantial opportunity. PT-kHYPE is Pendle's principal token for kHYPE — buy at discount for fixed yield upfront, hold till maturity, redeem for full value, with the price difference as profit.

1. Swap your kHYPE for PT-kHYPE on Pendle (~9.7% fixed APY at time of writing, with a 97-day term).
2. Deposit the PT-kHYPE into Felix Vanilla.
3. Borrow HYPE at 2.65–5% cost. (You can also borrow USDT0 or USDhl and swap into kHYPE if their borrow rates are lower, though their Loan-to-Value (LTV) is lower — 62.5% vs. 86% for HYPE. LTV refers to the max you can borrow relative to collateral.)
4. Swap your borrowed HYPE into kHYPE on Kinetiq.
5. Use the newfound kHYPE to buy more PT-kHYPE.
6. Repeat the loop — up to ~7x at 86% LTV for HYPE.

This strategy could net 50%+ APY if maxed out (not recommended), while qualifying for additional Felix rewards. Note you must hold PT-kHYPE through maturity (Nov. 12, 2025) for this to pay off.

Also, while Felix uses a special oracle to monitor PT-kHYPE prices for safer looping, higher LTV still means higher risk. I'd recommend substantial breathing room — maximum 60-70% LTV. (h/t to Charlie and DeFi Dad for outlining this play.)

🏃 Strategy 3: The Stablecoin Carry with PT-kHYPE + HyperBeat

Use Pendle, Felix, and Hyperbeat to earn off your PT-kHYPE as well as through stables. 

Lastly, we have a strategy to harvest fixed yields from PT-kHYPE while farming stablecoin rates through HyperBeat. You’re double-dipping on two completely different yield sources without directional risk to kHYPE’s price (if you manage your risk thoughtfully of course).

1. Buy PT-kHYPE with your kHYPE on Pendle (~9.7% fixed APY).
2. Deposit PT-kHYPE into Felix.
3. Borrow USDT0 at ~2.1% rate.
4. Deposit USDT0 into HyperBeat’s hbUSDT vault and earn 8-15% APY + Hearts, HyperBeat’s equivalent of kPoints.

Bonus: If you want to go crazy here too, you can deposit the hbUSDT from Hyperbeat’s USDT vault into Pendle for PT-hbUSDT and earn an additional 13%, at time of writing.

You're stacking 9% fixed Pendle yield plus ~6.5% net stablecoin spread (8.73% HyperBeat minus 2.1% borrow), while farming Felix, Pendle, and HyperBeat points.

Here, you just have to monitor the price of HYPE overall to make sure your LTV ratio doesn’t get too high. But if you’re thoughtful from the start, this strategy could prove ideal for those looking to supplement their kPoints with additional stablecoin yields. (h/t to Szenemene.hl for the basis of this play.)

These three strategies offer different risk/reward profiles for farming kPoints, but they're just a handful of plays across HyperEVM's expanding DeFi ecosystem.

It’s worth noting that simpler strategies exist — you could just loop kHYPE through Felix, borrowing HYPE against it repeatedly, swapping for kHYPE, depositing, and on and on. Yes, you'll be net negative from borrowing costs, but if you've made it this far, you likely believe kPoints will yield returns above 10%, so this may work for you.

As always, these are all just potential strategies and not financial advice, but if you’re in the HyperEVM ecosystem, I’d highly recommend taking a closer look at Kinetiq. With many ways for the protocol to earn, plus its deep-seated allegiance to the ecosystem and vice versa, it definitely stands out as one of the most worthwhile drops right now.

Pick your play, manage your risk, and let's see where these kPoints take us.