Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan gave a strongly bullish view on Hyperliquid and its native token, HYPE, shortly after Bitwise launched a HYPE exchange-traded fund (ETF) last week.
In his commentary, Hougan argued that the market is misjudging Hyperliquid’s broader business model, essentially viewing it as just another perpetual futures platform.
Hyperliquid as a global super app
Hougan said Hyperliquid appears to have been caught in what he described as a “pricing error,” with investors valuing the platform as little more than a perpetual futures exchange.
In contrast, he framed Hyperliquid as a global financial “super app,” one that transcends the boundaries of crypto and expands into areas such as stocks, commodities, currencies and prediction markets.
As part of its valuation perspective, Hougan estimated that the platform’s annual revenue could be between $800 million and $1 billion, suggesting there is room for the company to scale well beyond its current market format.
A key element of Hougan’s case concerns Hyperliquid’s compensation model. He pointed to a structure in which 99% of trading fees are spent on the repurchase of HYPE tokens, describing this as a mechanism that helps support value rather than simply generating revenue without a token-linked benefit.
That, he said, aligns incentives in a way that differs from what investors might expect if they treat Hyperliquid as a standard trading platform.
HYPE approaching record highs
Hougan also emphasized that HYPE’s recent performance does not change his view that the token remains undervalued. He noted that HYPE is up 77% this year, but he believes the market still hasn’t fully credited Hyperliquid’s long-term trajectory.
In his displayHyperliquid’s real opportunity is not just to grow as a fast-growing perpetual crypto exchange, but to evolve into a broader trading super app that includes stocks, pre-IPO assets, commodities, prediction markets and crypto assets.
The bullish comments come after interest in HYPE received another boost from ETF activity. Together with The launch of Bitwise of a Hyperliquid ETF linked to HYPE, 21Shares introduced its own HYPE ETF earlier this month.
Following these launches, HYPE soared, posting huge gains of almost 20% in the last week alone. At the time of writing, HYPE was trading just above $48, just 18% below last year’s all-time high of $59.
Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com