Arthur Hayes and Hanson Birringer on Hyperliquid’s Success (And What Could Stop It) - Ep. 852
Episode publishedPodcast: UnchainedUnchained
Transcript preview
Preview only
Can hyperliquid justify its valuation in the face of a Coinbase and Robinhood perfect exchange, that targets the wealthiest retail degens in the world, Americans?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained, your no hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your host, Laura Shin. June fourteenth was a special day for crypto. And no, we're not talking about Donald Trump's birthday. We're talking about ours. On 06/14/2016, Unchained, the podcast, officially published its first ever episode. Nine years and close to 900 episodes later, we're still here. And just like crypto, we're not going anywhere anytime soon. With the launch of shows like the chopping block and bits and bips and some other shows in the works, there's more coming around the corner. Here's to many
for having us. Thanks
to see you.
So Hyperliquid has been a DeFi slash l one juggernaut ever since its airdrop in November. The decentralized perpetual swap exchange now ranks eighth of all Bitcoin futures exchanges according to Coin Glass, and it's been lauded for having one of the only good airdrops in recent memory, and the price has actually been going up since then. It was done in a true fair launch style, so it's gotten praise for that. And then it was the center of attention when the pseudonymous trader James Wynne became the main character on the timeline, and I think longed Bitcoin up to a $100,000,000, but then lost
So I think the the narrative that DEXs are going to take over the world has been something that we've been on the lookout for for a very long time. I think the first real perp decks that caught everybody's attention was d y d x back in it was, like, 02/2020, 02/2021. And I remember at the time, you know, I think BitMEX Ventures had a chance to invest in it. We didn't. Probably a bad call, at the time, but I think the the d y d x price chart, if you take a look, it went up to something like $28,000,000,000 FTV, which is a massive number at the time given, like, their trading volumes are pale in
what have you been thinking?
Yeah. No. I I think, you know, as a, you know, global trading firm of crypto, we obviously kind of, I think, saw the potential of hyperliquid, pre TGE is just the market maker in the space and started to take a look and and play around and kinda get active in the ecosystem. Post TGE, though, it's taken on, I think, a completely new, you know, narrative both in the broader ecosystem and industry, but also from, like, a client interest perspective. We're seeing, you you know, a lot of hedge funds and institutions looking to get exposure, you know, kinda echoing what Arthur was saying, not really
And out of curiosity, Arthur, you mentioned d y d x, and, obviously, there's also been other perpetuals, DEXs before. I wondered, you know, what is it that, you know, brought Hyper Liquid kind of to the fore in this way in a way that the previous, Perp DEXs kind of didn't, manage to do? Do you think it's literally just all this stuff we talked about, like the fair launch and kind of the community aspect, or or is there something else?
Keep exploring with a free account.
A free account preserves the short preview. Upgrade to Pro for the full transcript and episode chat.