Written by Matt Hougan , Bitwise
Compiled by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News
Hyperliquid is one of the most important emerging projects in the crypto space in recent years. Its native token, HYPE, is the best-performing large-cap crypto asset in 2026, having risen 77% year-to-date. However, I still believe the market severely underestimates its influence and true value, and I would like to explain why in detail.
There are three points that deserve special attention.
1. Hyperliquid is becoming the next generation of super-app.
On November 12, 2025, Paul Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), delivered a crucial regulatory speech: " The SEC's Regulatory Approach to Crypto Assets: An Insider's Perspective from Project Crypto ." If you haven't read it yet, please stop and read it now.
Atkins, one of the world’s most important financial regulators, clearly outlined its vision for the financial markets over the next five years in its speech: almost all markets will move to running on the blockchain.
He particularly emphasized the concept of "super apps":
"I strongly support super apps in the financial sector, which enable custody and trading of multiple 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 he was actually referring to a different model:
"I have asked committee staff to prepare recommendations to allow tokens associated with investment contracts to be traded on non-SEC regulated platforms, including intermediaries that are registered with the CFTC or licensed through state regulatory systems."
That's exactly what Hyperliquid is doing.
Hyperliquid, which started as a crypto perpetual contract exchange, now sees nearly half of its trading volume coming from non-crypto assets, including commodities, S&P 500 futures, and pre-IPO stocks. I expect this proportion to rise to 70% by the end of the year. They also recently launched a prediction market, 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 provides users with trading exposure across multiple asset classes.
Of course, Hyperliquid still needs to mature: it's not yet available to US users and needs further integration into the US regulatory system. But this hasn't stopped it from becoming one of the fastest-growing financial businesses I've ever seen.
In the past month, its trading volume has reached a staggering $170 billion. This explosive growth stems from Hyperliquid's shift from focusing solely on the crypto market to directly targeting the larger global trading market. It doesn't want to be "the next Binance," but rather aims to become the world's largest and most valuable trading venue.
2. Hyperliquid and the Rise of "Second Generation" Crypto Tokens
The HYPE token launched on November 29, 2024, just one week after former chairman Gary Gensler announced his departure. It was one of the first major projects in the new regulatory era.
During the Gensler era, crypto projects were generally concerned about being classified as securities, exposing developers to unlimited personal liability risks. Therefore, most first-generation DeFi projects (such as Uniswap and Aave) launched "governance tokens," intentionally weakening their economic ties with the underlying business in order to circumvent regulation.
The Atkins era brought greater clarity. Hyperliquid was designed from day one as a "second-generation token"—it was designed to truly capture value. Notably, 99% of the transaction fees generated on the Hyperliquid platform are directly used to buy back HYPE tokens. More transactions → more buybacks → stronger token value capture—the logic is clear and direct.
I believe this will become the new standard for token design in the future. This is also a key reason why HYPE is expected to be the best-performing large-cap asset in 2026.
3. Hyperliquid is currently significantly undervalued.
I believe HYPE is one of the most overpriced assets in the current crypto market, and this mismatch stems from two misconceptions.
The first issue is a misclassification. The market currently values Hyperliquid as a rapidly growing crypto perpetual contract exchange. However, it is actually becoming a super app covering all asset classes globally: crypto, stocks, commodities, forex, prediction markets, structured products, and more. Its potential market isn't the $3 trillion crypto market, but the $600 trillion global asset market. The market is giving you the opportunity for the latter at the price of the former.
The second issue is the mispricing. Crypto investors have been repeatedly taught over the years that "tokens do not capture value," with countless projects experiencing explosive growth in users and trading volume, yet the tokens remain stagnant or even go to zero. Therefore, even knowing that the HYPE mechanism is different, they psychologically categorize it with UNI, rather than comparing it to Robinhood or CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) stocks.
Hyperliquid's current annualized revenue is estimated at $800 million to $1 billion, with a market capitalization of approximately $10 billion to $11 billion, corresponding to a revenue multiple of only 10 to 14 times. For a rapidly growing company, this price is extremely cheap. In comparison, Robinhood's P/E ratio is approximately 37, and CME's is approximately 24, while both are growing at a much slower pace than Hyperliquid.
Hyperliquid and the Future of Crypto Innovation
Over the past decade, many crypto innovation projects have worn masks: tokens do not capture value, foundations do not hold assets, and developers carefully circumvent the SEC.
The SEC of the Atkins era ended this pretense. Projects can now exist legitimately as decentralized business entities.
Hyperliquid is the first major project to truly capitalize on this opportunity: its products cover all asset classes, its tokens directly capture value, and its revenue is real with a transparent buyback mechanism.
Of course, this doesn't guarantee that Hyperliquid will win—there will be competitors in the future, and regulations may change. But it gives us a clear first look at what cryptocurrency should look like when it's allowed to grow normally.
Most of the time, embracing the future is expensive. Occasionally, the market will offer you a discount.
