Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan said Hyperliquid is one of the most important crypto assets to emerge in years, arguing that investors are ignoring the platform’s impact and the value of its HYPE token.
In his own recently memo weekHougan said HYPE is 2026’s fastest growing crypto economy, rising nearly 77% year to date. He created Hyperliquid as a fast-growing trading platform that moves beyond crypto perps to a broader range of markets, including commodities, S&P 500 futures, pre-IPO stocks, prediction markets, and other non-crypto products.
Hougan said Hyperliquid now does about half of its volume in non-crypto assets and expects that share to rise to 70% by the end of the year. He said that the role of Hyperliquid next to the super money app model explained by SEC Chair Paul Atkins, where money can access several asset classes through one platform.
The memo said Hyperliquid processed $170 billion in sales last month, driven by its push into markets larger than crypto. Hougan said that the platform is not trying to be the next Binance, but instead wants to be one of the largest exchanges in the world.
Hougan also pointed to HYPE as an example of what he called a second-generation crypto symbol. Unlike the first tokens of the DeFi regime that had little financial connection to the platforms that represented them, HYPE was designed to capture value from the beginning, with 99% of Hyperliquid’s trading capital used to purchase the token.
This structure is important to Hougan’s discussion. He said Hyperliquid makes $800 million to $1 billion a year, while HYPE trades in a market of $10 billion to $11 billion. That means investors pay about 10 to 14 times more for advertising on the platform, which Hougan said is cheap for a fast-growing business.
Hougan said that the market is making two mistakes: appreciating Hyperliquid as a crypto perps exchange instead of a global trading platform and treating HYPE as old tokens that failed to make a profit despite the growth of the platform. He said HYPE should be better compared to trading platforms such as Robinhood or CME, while noting that token holders do not have the same rights as holders.
The memo also acknowledged that Hyperliquid still has significant hurdles to overcome. Hougan said the platform is not available for US users and still needs to be integrated into the system.
Hougan created Hyperliquid as an early example of what crypto projects can do under a well-regulated environment, with virtual assets, virtual currencies, and tokens designed to hold value. He said that the competition and changes in the law remain dangerous, but he said that the market will give money to the discount of one of the fast-growing crypto-businesses.
The memo comes as Bitwise’s Hyperliquid focused ETF launched last week, fueling access to HYPE as the token continues to rally. HYPE last traded near $48.50 at press time, up nearly 2% on the day and up more than 20% over the past week, according to CoinGecko. data.
