With the conquest of the $50 mark, HYPE once again reached a new all-time high yesterday. The perps platform continues to benefit from a bullish market environment and strong business figures. It is therefore no surprise that euphoria is spilling over, with Arthur Hayes – Chief Investment Officer at investment firm Maelstrom – even predicting more than a hundredfold increase in the HYPE price. In the long term, the forecast may be less absurd than it first appears. The reason: according to market experts such as Syncracy Capital founder Ryan Watkins, Hyperliquid could “encompass all assets worldwide, including currencies, stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate and even exotic markets such as sports betting and prediction markets.”
Hyperliquid: Project Overview
Hyperliquid is a DEX (Decentralized Exchange) specializing in perpetual futures – derivative contracts without expiration dates that allow leveraged positions without direct ownership of crypto assets. The architecture is based on two core components: HyperCore, an on-chain order book for spot and perps, and HyperEVM, a smart contract engine. Both operate under the HyperBFT consensus, enabling apps to interact directly with order books, balances, and positions. Compared with competitors like dYdX and GMX, Hyperliquid offers a CEX-like trading experience.
The community was also rewarded with a generous airdrop, creating a cult-like following for founder Jeff Yu’s project. Unlike most new crypto ventures, the team rejected venture capital funding, which means HYPE is not threatened by large unlocks or VC-driven profit-taking.
Still, adoption metrics remain the key investment case.
Bullish Metrics and Adoption
Hyperliquid rapidly captured nearly 80% of perpetual futures volume, establishing an almost monopolistic position in the sector. Notably, the entire market expanded tenfold in the same period. According to Hypertracker, open positions reached an all-time high of 198,397, while open interest climbed above $15B.
Source: Hyperliquid Stats
Trading volume hit $319B in July, according to DeFiLlama. For comparison, Robinhood reported only $237.8B, despite a retail-heavy customer base that is more than 100 times larger. Hyperliquid remains dominated by wealthy crypto users, making the platform dependent on a small number of power traders. Still, the growth trajectory is striking.
Revenues followed suit: the DEX generated $87M in July (over one-third of total blockchain revenues) and already exceeded $99M in August.
Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck, credits this success to a “simple, highly functional product.” The integration of Phantom Wallet unlocked a community of 15M monthly active users, generating $2.66B in July trading volume, $1.3M in fees, and 20,900 new users.
HYPE Token Economics
Hyperliquid’s native token benefits directly from the platform’s growth: 97% of fees are used to buy and burn HYPE. This supply reduction mechanism strongly supports price action.
Unlike many tokens driven only by speculation, HYPE has fundamental value tied to buybacks and cash flows. Spot trading is also gaining momentum, with a record $3.4B 24h volume logged after a large BTC-to-ETH swap by a crypto whale.
Beyond price appreciation, HYPE has practical utility: it is required for paying HyperEVM network fees, while stakers benefit from reduced trading fees and rewards. With the HIP-3 upgrade, external teams will be able to launch new perp markets without permission by auctioning launch rights (requiring a 1M HYPE bond). Creators can set their own market parameters and keep up to 50% of fees, further boosting demand for HYPE.
Arthur Hayes Predicts 126x
At WebX in Tokyo, Arthur Hayes forecast a 126x increase for HYPE over the next three years. He argued that stablecoin expansion could raise Hyperliquid’s annual fees from $1.2B to $258B. Maelstrom estimated that this growth could push Hyperliquid’s valuation to $5.2T by 2028.
This would place HYPE’s market cap at more than 2.5x that of Bitcoin today. While bullish momentum is undeniable, many analysts caution that these projections are unrealistic. Even Nasdaq, sometimes used as a benchmark, has a market value of only ~$55B.
Hyperliquid: $5,200,000,000,000 Target Valuation
— Maelstrom (@MaelstromFund) August 27, 2025
Stablecoins are a once in a century change of the global monetary architecture. Their growth will drive Hyperliquid avg daily volume (ADV) and could boost annualized fees to $258B by 2028.
Model by @CryptoHayes pic.twitter.com/QK9QM8ZFK0
Reaching a $5T valuation would require Hyperliquid to capture a vast range of TradFi markets – theoretically possible, but practically hindered by regulation, competition, and time.
Risks and Considerations
Critics from OAK Research and GL Capital highlight centralization risks: with 21 current and 24 upcoming validators, Hyperliquid is far from decentralized in cypherpunk terms. Others point to insufficient codebase transparency.
A prolonged bear market could also reduce revenues and undermine the buyback program, currently the strongest price driver.
Conclusion
Despite risks, Hyperliquid stands out for its strong revenues, buybacks, community support, and emerging DeFi ecosystem. For investors, HYPE could be a valuable portfolio addition – but allocation should remain cautious. History shows that jumping into new bull-market narratives too euphorically has often been unwise.