Why Hyperliquid Can Still 10X, According to Hyperion DeFi CEO

For Hyunsu Jung, the math was simple.

Crypto hadn't seen a project — or product-market fit — quite like Hyperliquid in a while. Not only was he confident the former Harvard grad turned founder Jeff Yan could execute the tech, he was confident that the project could leverage its success as the leading perpetual futures exchange to scale up to power markets well beyond crypto.

That thesis is why Jung now leads one of the publicly traded digital asset treasuries focused on scooping up Hyperliquid's token and helping evangelize investors just waking up to where HYPE could climb.

“If you value it just as a perp DEX, I think it’s pretty fairly valued,” the Hyperion DeFi CEO told Coinage. “But if you value it as a layer one… we think, yeah, it should be where Solana is. Definitely.”

That alone would imply a 5x from current levels. But Jung doesn’t stop there. Drawing on his previous experience at Darma Capital, where the firm managed more than $1 billion in digital assets, Jung believes the demand-side tailwinds for Hyperliquid are unlike anything he’s seen before.

Not only has Hyperliquid caught attention from investors for surpassing $800 million in onchain fees last year, Hyperion DeFi’s shareholder letter spotlighted that 97% of those revenues went to buy and burn HYPE, removing 13% of the token’s circulating supply by year-end. According to Artemis, Hyperliquid has also already handily surpassed Coinbase in terms of notional trading volume by a factor of nearly 2-to-1 over the last year.

Last week, Hyperliquid expanded its institutional reach with Ripple Prime adding the trading platform to its roster. Jung said it's more proof that institutions will continue to turn to the platform to unlock additional ways for clients to position themselves as crypto and traditional finance merge.

“You’re not [only] able to just trade crypto, but also access equities, commodities, FX,” he said. “And now, with the HIP-3 upgrade, outcomes-based markets like prediction markets… it really is becoming the blockchain to service all financial products.”

That positions Hyperliquid, in his view, as a “pure next generation financial services product,” not just another DeFi token. And for Hyperion DeFi — one of the largest Hyperliquid-native treasury companies — that opens up a rare dual growth opportunity: price exposure to the HYPE token, and revenue participation across multiple verticals.

In just six months, Hyperion has built out a validator, staked HYPE strategies, proprietary fee reduction tools for institutions, and ecosystem integrations — all helping Jung frame Hyperion as “a full stack all-in-one vehicle."

To be sure, to achieve anything close to the upside Jung sees, Hyperliquid will have to continue to stave off competition from other competitors — and navigate any potential regulatory crackdowns that could come from future administrations.

For now, however, Hyperliquid hasn't seemed to miss a step even as Lighter rolls out its competing product built on Ethereum. Maybe there is still room for everyone. But so far, it's HYPE's game to lose.

“Hyperliquid is going to be one of the final forms of how blockchain-based services will become extremely valuable and utilized globally,” Jung said. “Supply is diminishing day by day. The demand for it keeps growing.”

Lighter and Hyperliquid are both nominated contenders in Coinage's Crypto Project of the Year celebration. Vote to crown the best project in crypto today!

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