Is Hyperliquid Still Severely Undervalued?

By Matt Hougan, Bitwise

Translated by AididiaoJP, Foresight News

Hyperliquid is one of the most important emerging projects in crypto over the past few years. Its native token, HYPE, has been the best-performing large-cap crypto asset in 2026, up 77% year-to-date. Yet I still believe the market severely underestimates its influence and true value—and I’d like to explain why in detail.

Three points deserve special attention.

1. Hyperliquid Is Becoming the Next-Generation “Super App”

On November 12, 2025, SEC Chair Paul Atkins delivered an exceptionally important regulatory speech: “The SEC’s Approach to Digital Assets: An Inside Look at Project Crypto.” If you haven’t read it yet, please pause now and do so.

https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/atkins-111225-secs-approach-digital-assets-inside-project-crypto

As one of the world’s most important financial regulators, Atkins clearly outlined his vision for financial markets over the next five years: nearly all markets will move on-chain.

He specifically emphasized the concept of the “super app”:

“I strongly support super apps in finance—platforms that offer custody and trading across multiple asset classes under a single regulatory license.”

At first, I assumed he meant traditional firms like Robinhood or Charles Schwab expanding into more asset classes. But in fact, he was referring to a different model:

“I have asked Commission staff to prepare recommendations allowing tokens associated with investment contracts to trade on non-SEC-regulated platforms—including intermediaries registered with the CFTC or licensed through state regulatory frameworks.”

This is precisely what Hyperliquid is doing.

Hyperliquid began as a crypto perpetuals exchange. Today, nearly half of its trading volume comes from non-crypto assets—including commodities, S&P 500 index futures, and pre-IPO equities. I expect this share to rise to 70% by year-end. The platform recently launched prediction markets, offering traders new tools to hedge real-world risks.

In other words, Hyperliquid is becoming the “super app” Atkins envisioned—a non-SEC-regulated platform delivering exposure to multiple asset classes.

Of course, Hyperliquid still needs to mature further: it remains unavailable to U.S. users and must deepen its integration into the U.S. regulatory framework. Yet none of this has stopped it from becoming one of the fastest-growing financial businesses I’ve ever seen.

Over the past month alone, its trading volume reached an astonishing $170 billion. This explosive growth stems from Hyperliquid’s decision to move beyond crypto—and instead aim directly at the much larger global trading market. It doesn’t want to be “the next Binance.” It wants 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—exactly one week after former SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced his departure. It is among the first major projects of the new regulatory era.

Under Gensler, crypto projects widely feared being classified as securities, exposing developers to unlimited personal liability. As a result, first-generation DeFi protocols—such as Uniswap and Aave—mostly issued “governance tokens,” deliberately weakening their economic linkage to underlying business operations to avoid regulatory scrutiny.

Atkins’ tenure brings greater clarity. From day one, Hyperliquid was designed as a “second-generation token”—built to genuinely capture value. Notably, 99% of all trading fees generated on the Hyperliquid platform are used to buy back HYPE. More trading → more buybacks → stronger value capture. The logic is clear and direct.

I believe this will become the new standard for token design—and it’s precisely why HYPE has emerged as the top-performing large-cap asset in 2026.

3. Hyperliquid Remains Significantly Undervalued

I consider HYPE one of the most mispriced assets in crypto today—a mispricing rooted in two flawed assumptions.

The first is a category error. The market currently values Hyperliquid as a fast-growing crypto perpetuals exchange. In reality, it is evolving into a global super app spanning all asset classes: crypto, equities, commodities, FX, prediction markets, structured products, and more. Its total addressable market isn’t the $3 trillion crypto market—it’s the $600 trillion global asset market. The market is pricing the former but offering you exposure to the latter.

The second is an anchoring error. For years, crypto investors have been repeatedly taught that “tokens don’t capture value.” Countless projects saw massive user and trading volume growth—but their tokens stagnated or even collapsed to zero. So even though investors know HYPE operates differently, psychologically they still group it with UNI—not with Robinhood or CME stock.

Hyperliquid’s estimated annualized revenue stands at $800 million–$1 billion, with a market cap of roughly $10–11 billion—implying a revenue multiple of just 10–14x. That’s extremely cheap for a high-growth company. By comparison, Robinhood trades at ~37x P/E, and CME at ~24x—both growing far more slowly than Hyperliquid.

Hyperliquid and the Future of Crypto Innovation

For the past decade, many crypto innovation projects wore masks: tokens didn’t capture value; foundations held no assets; developers tiptoed carefully around the SEC.

The SEC under Atkins has ended that charade. Projects can now exist openly—as decentralized commercial entities.

Hyperliquid is the first major project to fully seize this opportunity: offering products across all asset classes, issuing a token that directly captures value, generating real revenue, and implementing a transparent buyback mechanism.

Of course, this doesn’t guarantee Hyperliquid will win—competitors will emerge, and regulation may shift. But it gives us our first clear glimpse of what crypto should look like when allowed to grow up normally.

Most of the time, embracing the future is expensive. Occasionally, the market offers you a discount.