Why Hyperliquid Can Still Surge 250% Higher, According to Multicoin
Perpetual futures leader Hyperliquid has reached an inflection point, says Multicoin's Spencer Applebaum
By Zack Guzman
September 21, 2026
Hyperliquid has already become one of crypto’s hottest trades. And one of the largest crypto funds, Multicoin Capital, thinks it could still have much more room to run.
The crypto-focused investment firm famous for being early to Solana sees another 250% left in HYPE, the native token of "the everything exchange" that is increasingly getting bought back and burned as Hyperliquid's revenues explode.
“We’re very bullish Hyperliquid,” Multicoin Co-Head of Venture Spencer Applebaum told Coinage in a new interview. “It’s actually the largest position in our fund.”
The bet comes down to something that has historically been difficult to find in crypto: A token that Multicoin believes can actually be valued based on the cash flows generated by the underlying business.
Bitcoin may be judged as a store of value. Other tokens often trade more on expectations around network adoption, scarcity or speculation. But Applebaum argues HYPE is different because the economic activity generated by Hyperliquid flows unusually directly back to the token.
“Hyperliquid is a unique asset in the crypto space because you can actually do a real valuation model on it,” Applebaum said.
As Multicoin discussed in their June thesis on Hyperliquid, roughly 99% of Hyperliquid's protocol revenue is used to buy back HYPE, with those tokens effectively removed from circulation. Hyperliquid also never raised outside venture capital, meaning there isn't a separate equity layer sitting above token holders with a competing claim on the economics of the exchange.
That allowed Multicoin to approach HYPE more like an analyst might value a traditional financial business.
Applebaum said Multicoin modeled Hyperliquid’s cash flows through 2028 and estimated what investors might ultimately be willing to pay for them. The firm's published base case projects roughly $8 billion in annual earnings by 2028 and applies a 20-times multiple to arrive at a price of approximately $319 per token. On Monday, Hyperliquid notched a new record high with HYPE crossing $95 a token.
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Perhaps more notable is what Multicoin says it did not assume.
Applebaum said its model was constructed without assuming Hyperliquid meaningfully expands its roughly 35% share of open interest among decentralized derivatives exchanges at the time of the analysis. And some of the products that could turn Hyperliquid into a much larger financial marketplace aren't included in the base case at all.
“In our base case price target, we don't even include prediction markets and options,” Applebaum said. “That's kind of call option on top.” That gets to the more ambitious part of Multicoin's thesis.
Hyperliquid began by gaining traction as a venue for perpetual futures trading, but Applebaum sees the platform evolving toward what Hyperliquid has described as a “house of all finance” — one place where a trader can eventually move between crypto, equities, commodities, foreign exchange, options and prediction markets.
Applebaum offered the example of an investor holding Bitcoin who wants to hedge the risk of an upcoming inflation report. Rather than keeping Bitcoin at Coinbase, equities at E-Trade, options somewhere else and a prediction-market position on yet another platform, Hyperliquid could theoretically bring those positions under a single portfolio margining system.
“I think Hyperliquid's network effects are actually a lot stronger than it appears,” Applebaum said. It is a lesson Multicoin learned before.
The firm was an early investor in Solana and previously made a high-profile bet on Binance's BNB token. Applebaum said one of his biggest investing regrets has been underestimating just how powerful the compounding network effects around liquidity can become.
Hyperliquid is effectively another attempt to capture that dynamic early.
That doesn't mean Multicoin views HYPE as a replacement for Solana. Despite public speculation that Multicoin's growing enthusiasm for Hyperliquid signaled a shift away from one of the firm's most famous investments, Applebaum said Multicoin remains heavily committed to both ecosystems.
“My mental model is Solana is going to win spot trading and real world asset issuance, whereas Hyperliquid is kind of in pole position to win on derivatives,” he said, arguing both markets can grow “orders of magnitude from here.”
However, the bigger threat may instead come from traditional finance as major exchanges gear up to fight back against the new challenger.
Robinhood, Coinbase and major Wall Street firms are all pushing deeper into onchain markets at the same time Hyperliquid is trying to expand beyond crypto-native derivatives. BlackRock, JPMorgan and other incumbents are also exploring tokenized assets and blockchain infrastructure.
Applebaum doesn't think that necessarily eliminates the opportunity for crypto-native companies.
His view is that many traditional financial firms will prefer partnering with existing crypto infrastructure rather than trying to recreate everything themselves. He pointed to Robinhood as an example of a company increasingly integrating crypto-native technology to get products to market faster.
“It's a classic build-versus-buy argument,” Applebaum said. “I think the vast majority of them are going to buy because it allows them to get to market faster and be competitive right away.”
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