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Daniel Cheung, co-founder of Syncracy Capital, says Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE is starting to resemble Solana’s setup before its last big run, arguing that the protocol has become the clearest center of real trading activity in crypto. In a series of posts on
Cheung’s most direct comparison came this week. “HYPE at $35 feels similar to SOL at $20 before the last cycle rally,” he wrote, describing Hyperliquid as an early-stage winner before a broader market expansion. He linked that view to what he sees as the protocol’s current market position: “Hyperliquid is currently the main chain where trading activity takes place and the only chain currently bringing new users to crypto, given its offering on 24/7 markets.”
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What Cheung seems to be appealing to is Solana’s move from a battered late-2022 signing to one of the cycle’s biggest winners. After trading around $8 at the end of 2022 and still hovering around $23 in September 2023, SOL eventually climbed to a new all-time high of $295.83 in mid-January 2025. From a reference point of $20, that would imply a rally of about 1,379%.
That argument is notable because it doesn’t rely primarily on meme-driven activity, which has often driven attention cycles elsewhere. Cheung said Hyperliquid is “getting significantly more media attention and respect” because its use cases “include much more than just dog poop memes.” According to him, this gives the project a stronger foundation if speculative conditions improve again.
In several posts, Cheung repeatedly described Hyperliquid less as a one-app crypto trading platform and more as a category-defining trading platform. On February 28, he wrote: “It’s becoming clearer by the day that Hyperliquid is the financial trading platform of the future and generations will get rich by lusting after this coin. Think this has a chance to topple Robinhood, Interactive Brokers, etc… Hyperliquid is one of its innovating peers.”
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That’s a big claim, and Cheung presented it as a thesis on product and market structure, not just a short-term price quote. His view appears to rest on two interrelated assumptions: first, that perpetual futures will become a much larger category than the market is currently pricing in, and second, that Hyperliquid will account for a disproportionate share of that expansion because users are already trading there.
He made that point more explicitly on Feb. 12, when he said investors were missing “two things” in the current market. The first was that “HYPE is the most exciting non-AI startup that will eventually spin COIN and HOOD.” The second was that “the offender category will be larger than anyone expects,” adding that another asset, LIT, appeared deeply undervalued in terms of fees compared to HYPE.
Cheung’s messages also make it clear that timing matters. On March 9, he said that “HYPE to $120+” would be “pretty easy once the crypto bull market comes back,” before adding, “We are close.” That suggests his target is not based on Hyperliquid operating in isolation, but on the idea that a renewed bull phase would strengthen an already strong relative position. Notably, BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes recently argued that HYPE could reach $150 by August this year.
At the time of writing, HYPE was trading at $36.16.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com