When the law is no longer a barrier, what will Hyperliquid look like in the future?
Written by: Matt Hougan, Bitwise
Compiled by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News
Hyperliquid is one of the most significant emerging projects in the crypto space in recent years. Its native token HYPE is projected to be one of the top-performing large-cap crypto assets in 2026, having already surged 77% this year. However, I still believe the market is severely underestimating its impact and true value, and I'd like to elaborate on the reasons behind this.
There are three key points worth highlighting.
1. Hyperliquid is becoming the next generation super app.
On November 12, 2025, SEC Chair Paul Atkins delivered a highly important regulatory speech: (SEC’s Approach to Crypto Assets: Inside Project Crypto). If you haven’t read it, stop and read it now. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/atkins-111225-secs-approach-digital-assets-inside-project-crypto
Atkins, as one of the most important global financial regulators, clearly outlined the vision for financial markets over the next five years in his speech: nearly all markets will shift to run on-chain.
He particularly emphasized the concept of a 'super app':
I strongly support super apps in finance, implementing custody and trading of various asset classes under a single regulatory license.
At first, I thought he was referring to traditional institutions like Robinhood or Charles Schwab expanding into more assets, but in fact, he was pointing to a different model:
I have requested the committee staff to prepare suggestions to allow tokens related to investment contracts to be traded on non-SEC regulated platforms, including intermediaries registered with the CFTC or licensed through state regulatory systems.
This is exactly what Hyperliquid is doing.
Hyperliquid initially was just a crypto perpetual contract exchange, but now nearly half of its trading volume comes from non-crypto assets, including commodities, S&P 500 futures, and Pre-IPO stocks. I expect this ratio to rise to 70% by the end of the year. They’ve also recently launched prediction markets, providing traders with new tools to hedge real-world risks.
In other words, Hyperliquid is becoming the 'super app' envisioned by Atkins—a non-SEC regulated platform that can provide users with trading exposure across multiple asset classes.
Of course, Hyperliquid still needs to mature: it isn’t open to U.S. users yet and needs to further integrate into the U.S. regulatory framework. But this hasn’t stopped it from being one of the fastest-growing financial businesses I’ve ever seen.
In the past month, its trading volume has reached an astonishing $170 billion. This explosive growth stems from Hyperliquid no longer being confined to the crypto market but directly targeting the larger global trading market. It doesn’t want to be 'the next Binance'; it aims to be the largest and most valuable trading venue in the world.
2. The rise of Hyperliquid alongside 'second-generation' crypto tokens.
The HYPE token launched on November 29, 2024, just a week after former Chair Gary Gensler announced his departure. It is one of the first major projects of the new regulatory era.
During the Gensler era, crypto projects generally worried about being classified as securities, and developers faced unlimited personal liability risks. Thus, first-generation DeFi projects (like Uniswap, Aave) mostly launched 'governance tokens', intentionally weakening their economic ties to underlying businesses to evade regulation.
The Atkins era has brought greater clarity. Hyperliquid was designed from day one as a 'second-generation token'—it’s designed to truly capture value. Notably, 99% of the transaction fees generated on the Hyperliquid platform are directly used to buy back HYPE. The more trading happens → the more buybacks occur → the stronger the token value capture, clear and direct logic.
I believe this will become the new standard for token design in the future. And this is precisely why HYPE is poised to be one of the best-performing large-cap assets in 2026.
3. Hyperliquid is still significantly undervalued right now.
I believe HYPE is one of the most absurdly priced assets in the current crypto market, a mismatch stemming from two misconceptions.
The first is a category error. The market still values Hyperliquid as a rapidly growing crypto perpetual contract exchange. But it is actually becoming a super app covering all asset classes worldwide: crypto, stocks, commodities, forex, prediction markets, structured products, and more. Its potential market isn’t the $30 trillion crypto market, but the $600 trillion global asset market. The market is giving you the opportunity of the latter at the price of the former.
The second is an anchoring error. Crypto investors have been repeatedly educated over the years that 'tokens don’t capture value'; countless projects saw surging users and transaction volumes, yet tokens remained stagnant or even went to zero. So even if they know HYPE's mechanics are different, psychologically they still categorize it with UNI rather than comparing it to Robinhood or CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) stocks.
Currently, Hyperliquid's annualized revenue is estimated at $800 million to $1 billion, with a market cap of about $10 billion to $11 billion, corresponding to only 10-14 times revenue multiple. For a high-growth company, that price is extremely cheap. In comparison, Robinhood's P/E ratio is around 37 times, while CME is about 24 times, and both of them are growing much slower than Hyperliquid.
Hyperliquid and the future of crypto innovation.
Over the past decade, many crypto innovation projects have worn masks: tokens that don’t capture value, foundations that don’t hold assets, and developers carefully avoiding the SEC.
The SEC under Atkins ended this masquerade. Projects can now exist proudly as decentralized business entities.
Hyperliquid is the first large project to truly seize this opportunity: its product covers all asset classes, tokens directly capture value, revenue is real, and the buyback mechanism is transparent.
Of course, this doesn’t guarantee that Hyperliquid will win—there will be competitors, and regulations may change. But it allows us to see clearly for the first time: what should crypto look like when it’s allowed to grow normally.
Most of the time, embracing the future is expensive. Occasionally, the market gives you a discount opportunity.