Grayscale Calls Hyperliquid the Biggest Breakout Success in Modern Crypto Markets

TLDR:

• Hyperliquid generated nearly $800M revenue in 2025 without raising venture capital funds.
• The HYPE token reached a $13B market cap despite the platform remaining blocked in the U.S.
• Hyperliquid processed $2.9T in perpetual futures volume during 2025 across global markets.
• Grayscale believes HYPE remains undervalued compared with traditional exchange businesses.

Grayscale Research has identified Hyperliquid as the standout success story in modern digital assets. The decentralized exchange generated approximately $800 million in revenue during 2025.

It reached the 8th largest crypto asset by market capitalization. All of this was achieved without a single dollar of venture capital funding.

Notably, the platform remains geoblocked in the United States, yet its growth trajectory has drawn serious institutional attention.

How Hyperliquid Built a $800M Revenue Machine Without VC Backing

Grayscale’s report frames Hyperliquid’s rise as something the digital assets industry rarely produces. The platform launched publicly in August 2023, before Bitcoin ETPs arrived in U.S. markets.

It built its foundation during a relatively quiet period for decentralized finance. That timing proved deliberate rather than coincidental.

Rather than raising venture capital, Hyperliquid distributed approximately 30% of its HYPE token supply directly to early users. That decision shaped who owned and cared about the platform from day one.

The initial holder base consisted of traders, builders, and community participants. They had already used the product before they ever held the token.

This funding model created a different kind of alignment than most crypto projects carry. There were no VC lockup schedules or insider allocations waiting to pressure the market.

Trust, which Grayscale notes is scarce in this category, became a genuine competitive advantage. Users perceived Hyperliquid as a platform building for them rather than extracting value from them.

Grayscale’s report also points to product focus as central to the revenue story. Hyperliquid was engineered specifically around perpetual futures trading. It was not a general-purpose chain that happened to support a trading application.

That narrow focus allowed the team to prioritize exactly what active traders demand: fast order entry, deep liquidity, and reliable execution.

The Platform That Geoblocks America Yet Ranks 8th by Market Cap

Perhaps the most striking detail in Grayscale’s report is what Hyperliquid achieved while locked out of the United States.

U.S. users remain unable to access the platform due to regulatory ambiguity around perpetual futures and decentralized exchanges.

Despite that, HYPE carries a circulating market capitalization of roughly $13 billion. That places it among the eight largest crypto assets globally by market value.

Grayscale processed $2.9 trillion in perpetual futures volume across the platform during 2025. Open interest currently sits at around $7 billion.

That positions Hyperliquid as the third or fourth largest crypto perpetual futures exchange by open interest. All of this activity came exclusively from non-U.S. participants.

The report further notes that Hyperliquid has moved well beyond crypto-native markets. Through its HIP-3 framework, third-party developers can deploy perpetual contracts on traditional assets.

Oil perp volume on the platform surpassed $4 billion in a single 24-hour session on April 9, 2026. During that window, it briefly exceeded Bitcoin perpetual volumes on the same platform.

Bloomberg described Hyperliquid as a round-the-clock venue for leveraged commodity bets. An officially licensed S&P 500 perpetual contract now trades on the platform every day of the week.

Silver perp volume reached over $4 billion daily during the February 2026 price spike. Grayscale frames these data points as evidence that Hyperliquid is evolving into a 24/7 market structure layer for real-world assets.

What Comes Next for Hyperliquid and the HYPE Token

Grayscale’s report identifies U.S. regulatory clarity as the most consequential near-term catalyst for Hyperliquid. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has recently signaled movement toward frameworks that could accommodate perpetual-like products.

Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, and Kalshi are already positioning for compliant perp offerings. That momentum points toward a market structure shift that could directly benefit Hyperliquid.

The HYPE token currently trades at roughly 14 times earnings over the four quarters ending Q1 2026. Grayscale compares this to high-growth public exchange businesses like Robinhood and Interactive Brokers.

Those companies trade at multiples between 35 and 50 times earnings. That gap forms the basis of Grayscale’s view that HYPE offers meaningful upside over time.

Fee mechanics reinforce the token’s value case. Around 99% of platform trading fees flow into an assistance fund that converts fees into HYPE and burns them.

Because burns consistently exceed new token issuance, circulating supply has trended lower. Grayscale draws a direct parallel to share buyback programs in traditional equity markets.

Risks remain part of the picture Grayscale presents. HYPE carries annualized price volatility near 80%, roughly 40 percentage points above Bitcoin.

The platform runs on closed-source software with a more centralized validator set than comparable blockchain networks. U.S. market access remains contingent on regulatory decisions that have not yet reached a final form.