The spike came alongside a broader upswing in the meme-coin sector, where total market capitalization has climbed close to $77 billion. Over the past week the segment grew by 6.3%, while in the last month it expanded by nearly 10%, data from CoinMarketCap shows.
Dogecoin, the industry’s largest meme coin, advanced more than 7% in seven days, despite delays in the rollout of a DOGE-based ETF. Among the smaller names, MemeCore, DORA, and Moo Deng posted strong gains of 26%, 70%, and 20%, respectively
Pump.fun outpaces Hyperliquid
Pump.fun’s fundamentals continue to strengthen. On September 14, its TVL (total value locked) hit a record $334 million, before stabilizing near $320 million at press time, according to DeFi Llama.
The platform also overtook derivatives exchange Hyperliquid in terms of daily revenue, pulling in $3.38 million versus $3.06 million. This achievement pushed Pump.fun into third place among all DeFi protocols, behind only Circle and Tether.
Observers point out that Pump.fun’s momentum is fueled not only by the meme-coin revival but also by its ongoing PUMP token buyback initiative. Since July, the platform has repurchased roughly $98.4 million worth of PUMP, shrinking circulating supply by 6.67%.
Circle moves into Hyperliquid with USDC integration and strategic stake
Stablecoin issuer Circle has deepened its presence in the Hyperliquid ecosystem, rolling out native USDC on the protocol and taking a direct position in its token, HYPE. The firm also hinted it could step in as a network validator.
In its update on Tuesday, Circle confirmed that USDC will be deployed natively on HyperEVM, Hyperliquid’s smart contract layer, allowing seamless integration with the network’s products. The launch paves the way for USDC to be used across Hyperliquid’s spot and perpetual markets through HyperCore.
Circle, which completed its public listing on June 5, described this expansion as part of a broader strategy to strengthen USDC’s role in the growing stablecoin competition across emerging ecosystems.
Native @USDC & CCTP V2 is now live on HyperEVM - part of @HyperliquidX’s high-performance ecosystem.
— Circle (@circle) September 16, 2025
Developers, institutions, and traders can now access the world’s largest regulated stablecoin on HyperEVM, and securely make crosschain deposits from over a dozen blockchains.… pic.twitter.com/gVEMo48t0h
Since the start of the program, the PUMP token has climbed nearly 54%. At the time of writing, it trades around $0.0078, giving it a market cap of approximately $2.9 billion (crypto exchanges Bybit, TradingView).
