Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market-listed eole Inc. has made history as the first publicly traded Japanese company to acquire HYPE, the native token of the Hyperliquid decentralized perpetual futures platform. On July 28, the company purchased 1,078.2547 HYPE tokens for approximately ¥10.08 million ($61,600), paying an average price of ¥9,352.78 per token.
The investment is a core component of eole's Neo Crypto Bank initiative, a long-term strategy to build blockchain-based financial infrastructure for an emerging economy where AI agents autonomously execute payments and contracts. HYPE now joins Bitcoin as a strategic treasury asset, with eole planning to expand its HYPE holdings to ¥100 million ($610,500) through additional purchases before the end of August.
Hyperliquid operates its own high-performance Layer-1 blockchain and has become one of the largest decentralized derivatives trading venues. The HYPE token powers governance, staking and network incentives. eole emphasized that this is not a short-term speculative move but a deliberate allocation supporting Web3 and on-chain finance, citing the blockchain's suitability for autonomous AI systems.
This milestone highlights a growing trend among publicly listed companies diversifying crypto reserves beyond Bitcoin, as alternative blockchain ecosystems mature. While modest in size, the purchase sets a notable precedent in Japan's cautious institutional landscape and may encourage other domestic firms to explore digital assets for strategic purposes.
