Hyperliquid Soars to $16 Billion Valuation

Hyperliquid is skyrocketing after launching its token and is now the 8th largest blockchain in DeFi despite only offering a decentralized exchange.

The chain’s total value locked (TVL) surpassed $2 billion this week, overtaking both Avalanche and Sui, with its HYPE token hitting another all-time high of $16.5.

HYPE is up 450% from its launch price of roughly $3 less than two weeks ago, and the token is now trading at a $5.5 billion market capitalization, making it the 33rd largest cryptocurrency by circulating market cap.

Hyperliquid’s TVL is split between its derivatives books and its spot DEX books. The chain is the largest decentralized derivatives trading platform in DeFi, accounting for $1.9 billion of its $2.6 billion TVL, while the other $700 million resides in its spot DEX, making Hyperliquid spot the 9th largest spot DEX, according to DeFiLlama

Driven by the market’s recent volatility, Hyperliquid’s volume metrics are also hitting all-time highs of $10 billion in 24-hour volume on Dec. 5 and $3.5 billion of open interest on Dec. 7.

Most protocols and chains lose users and activity post-airdrop as airdrop farmers leave the ecosystem and incentives diminish. However, Hyperliquid’s daily unique trader count continues to rise, with an average of roughly 21,000 over the last week, compared to 9,000 the week leading up to its TGE.

While the derivatives and spot DEX ecosystems on Hyperliquid expand, investors are excited about its expansion into a fully operational Layer 1 ecosystem.

“Testnet HyperEVM and validators are both switching from using the TESTH token to using testnet HYPE. Anyone can also become a validator node on testnet! Hyperliquid is about to show the nonbelievers it is not a CEX, but a full-fledged L1 blockchain.” said Steven of Yunt Capital.

Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan has remained relatively quiet on social media, but after the HYPE airdrop, he wrote a post that concluded, “Hyperliquid is the evolution of finance. And Hyperliquid has not succeeded until it houses all of finance.”