Hyperliquid Straddles the Layer-1 and Perps DEX Divide—And Traders Are Taking Notice

Forget picking sides—Hyperliquid’s valuation narrative threads the needle between monolithic chains and perpetuals platforms. It’s the hedge fund darling that won’t commit.

Layer-1s scream ’infrastructure play’ while perps DEXes flaunt their leverage. Hyperliquid? Casually moonwalks between both camps, leaving analysts scrambling to redraw their comparables matrices.

Bonus jab: Meanwhile, traditional finance still thinks ’perps’ are a type of gym membership.

But as Blockworks Research analyst Boccaccio has pointed out, Hyperliquid trades at a higher fully diluted valuation (FDV) to fees ratio relative to competitor perps DEXs in Drift and dYdX, indicating it is more valuable to investors compared to simple perps DEXs. 

Bitwise Research analyst Danny Nelson said Hyperliquid aims to create a vibrant blockchain economy like Solana’s, but it’s “not quite there yet.”

“That said, the ecosystem’s flagship perpetual contracts exchange has become an industry juggernaut. The market is pricing HYPE accordingly, and, I WOULD argue, attempting to account for a future where Hyperliquid hosts yet more winners,” Nelson added.

There are other idiosyncratic factors at play as well. Hyperliquid’s validator set is not as decentralized as some other L1s. Hyperliquid does not require know-your-customer (KYC) checks, and most centralized exchanges such as Binance do, and maybe that’s a valuable feature to some traders that is being priced in as well.

For dopamine-deprived token investors, HYPE may look like the kind of opportunity that has been fewer and further between in recent years, but it’s likely too soon to call it the next SOL.

• The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
• Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
• Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
• 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox.
• Lightspeed: All things Solana.
• The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
• Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.