--- title: "Bitwise CIO: Hyperliquid and HYPE are still severely undervalued." type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/286985744.md" description: "Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan asserts that Hyperliquid and its token HYPE are undervalued despite a 77% year-to-date increase. He highlights Hyperliquid's evolution into a financial super app, aligning with SEC Chairman Paul Atkins' vision for on-chain market transactions. The platform is rapidly expanding beyond crypto, targeting traditional financial markets, with a trading volume of $170 billion last month. HYPE's design captures value through transaction fees, positioning it as a second-generation token amidst evolving regulatory clarity." datetime: "2026-05-20T01:16:52.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/286985744.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286985744.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/286985744.md) --- # Bitwise CIO: Hyperliquid and HYPE are still severely undervalued. Author: Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise; Translated by Shaw, Jinse Finance > P.S. Hyperliquid and its token HYPE are currently undervalued. Hyperliquid is one of the most core crypto projects to emerge in recent years. Its native token, HYPE, is the best-performing large-cap crypto asset in 2026, with a year-to-date increase of 77%.Even so, I still believe that investors have severely underestimated its industry influence and intrinsic value. I will elaborate on this in this week's memo. The three key points are as follows. Hyperliquid has become a brand new super app. One of the most influential regulatory speeches in the crypto space in recent years is "The SEC’s Approach to Crypto Assets: Inside ‘Project Crypto.’" delivered by Paul Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on November 12, 2025. Those who haven't read this article are advised to prioritize studying this speech. Atkins heads one of the world's most influential financial regulatory agencies, and this speech clearly outlines his vision for the future of financial markets: he predicts that within the next five years, almost all types of market transactions will gradually be on-chain. In his speech, Atkins specifically introduced the core concept of a financial super app: "As is well known, I strongly advocate for super app platforms in the financial sector. These platforms only require a single compliant regulatory license to handle the custody and trading of multiple asset classes in one place." When I first read this, I initially thought he was referring to traditional brokerages like Robinhood and Charles Schwab, expanding beyond stock trading to offer trading in other asset classes. However, his true intention goes far beyond that: "I have asked the SEC team to draft proposals exploring allowing tokens issued based on investment contracts to be traded on non-SEC regulated platforms, including intermediaries registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission or holding state regulatory licenses." This policy direction perfectly aligns with Hyperliquid's development path. Hyperliquid initially focused on perpetual contracts for crypto assets, but now nearly half of its trading volume comes from non-crypto assets, including commodities, S&P 500 futures, and pre-IPO stocks. I expect this traditional asset trading volume to climb to 70% by the end of this year. The platform has also added prediction market services, providing traders with more tools to hedge real-world market risks. In short, Hyperliquid is the financial super-application envisioned by Atkins—a comprehensive trading platform not directly regulated by the SEC, offering investment opportunities across all asset classes. Of course, Hyperliquid is still in its mature development stage: the platform is not yet open to users in the United States, and it also urgently needs to deeply adapt to the US regulatory system. However, this has not hindered its growth into one of the fastest-growing financial sectors I've ever seen. The platform's growth momentum is extremely rapid, with a trading volume of $170 billion last month alone. The core logic behind its rapid development is to move beyond the existing crypto market and target the much larger global traditional financial market. Its goal is not to create the next Binance, but to become the world's largest and most valuable integrated trading market. Hyperliquid Leads the Second Generation of Crypto Tokens Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE, officially launched trading on November 29, 2024, coinciding with the week-long resignation of former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. It was also one of the first leading crypto projects to emerge under the new regulatory era. During Gensler's tenure, all crypto projects were gripped by panic, constantly fearing their tokens would be classified as securities, potentially leading to unlimited joint and several liability for the development team. To mitigate this risk, first-generation decentralized finance projects like Uniswap and Aave issued governance tokens—tokens with only governance functions and virtually no connection to the project's actual revenue. By completely stripping away the core criterion of determining securities—the expected profit of the token—the project's founding team was able to minimize legal risks. With Atkins taking the helm at the SEC, the industry's past excessive risk aversion has disappeared, and regulatory boundaries have become increasingly clear. Atkins's remarks have redefined the criteria for classifying crypto tokens as securities, officially clearing the way for the development of value-capturing tokens. First-generation token projects like Aave are adjusting their governance models to adapt, while Hyperliquid represents a completely new track: second-generation tokens designed from the outset with value-capturing capabilities. The core mechanism is that 99% of the transaction fees generated by the Hyperliquid platform are directly used to buy back HYPE tokens on the secondary market. The higher the trading volume, the stronger the token buyback, and the token value steadily increases accordingly—the entire value logic is clear and unambiguous. I believe that this token design model will become the mainstream in the industry in the future, which is the core reason why HYPE has become the strongest performing large-cap crypto asset globally in the past year. This also leads to the third core logic. Hyperliquid's value is severely underestimated. In my opinion, HYPE is currently the asset in the crypto market whose valuation is seriously deviating from its true value. The valuation deviation mainly stems from two cognitive misconceptions. 1. Category perception bias. The market generally defines Hyperliquid simply as a high-growth crypto perpetual contract exchange, but its true positioning is a global financial super platform covering all asset classes, including crypto assets, stocks, commodities, forex, prediction markets, and structured financial products. Its target market is not the $3 trillion crypto market, but the $600 trillion global market for all types of financial assets—the two are worlds apart in scale. The current market valuation is based solely on the standards of a small crypto exchange, essentially buying a world-class integrated financial platform at a low price. 2. Anchoring Bias Based on Inherent Thinking Years of industry development have led crypto investors to a fixed perception: the vast majority of tokens cannot generate real value. Numerous projects have achieved steady growth in user numbers, trading volume, and real-world application scenarios, but their native token prices have remained stagnant or even declined for extended periods. Even though the market recognizes the unique nature of the HYPE mechanism, investors still find it difficult to completely change their preconceived notions, subconsciously categorizing it with pure governance tokens like UNI. However, considering its core mechanism of repurchasing 99% of transaction fees, HYPE's benchmark should be traditional financial brokerage firms like Robinhood and CME Group. Currently, Hyperliquid's estimated annual revenue is between $800 million and $1 billion, with a market capitalization of approximately $10 billion to $11 billion, corresponding to a token buyback revenue stream valuation of only 10 to 14 times earnings. For a company in a period of rapid expansion, this valuation level is extremely cost-effective. For comparison: Robinhood's P/E ratio is 37, and CME Group's is 24, while their business growth rates are far lower than Hyperliquid's. Although equity holders have more comprehensive legal rights than token holders, and the two cannot be completely equated, a comprehensive calculation based on growth rate is sufficient to demonstrate that the current market valuation of Hyperliquid is severely undervalued. Hyperliquid and the Future of Industry Innovation Over the past decade, many innovative crypto projects have been in a state of "disguised development": tokens lacked real value capture capabilities, foundations had no substantial asset ownership, and project teams constantly evaded regulatory oversight. The new regulatory landscape led by Atkins has completely broken this circuitous development pattern, allowing crypto projects to finally operate openly as decentralized commercial entities. Hyperliquid is the first leading project to firmly grasp policy dividends and fully implement its development: its business covers all categories of financial assets, its tokens possess genuine value capture capabilities, its platform revenue is verifiable, and its token buyback mechanism is fully automated. Of course, this does not mean that Hyperliquid will necessarily remain the industry leader; risks such as subsequent competitor entry and regulatory policy shifts still exist. However, it clearly demonstrates the true form of the crypto industry after it has moved away from its unregulated growth and towards standardized and mature development. Most of the time, grasping future trends requires a high cost, but the current market is offering a rare window of opportunity to buy in at low prices. ### Related Stocks - [PURR.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/PURR.US.md) - [BHYP.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BHYP.US.md) - [HOOD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HOOD.US.md) - [SCHW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SCHW.US.md) - [.SPX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/.SPX.US.md) - [SCHW-D.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SCHW-D.US.md) - [SCHW-J.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SCHW-J.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [Hyperliquid Strategies Q1 net profit driven by HYPE token gains](https://longbridge.com/en/news/285622504.md) - [Hyperliquid is trending again. 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