Today Hyperliquid is a top 15 cryptocurrency by market cap, it's lobbying the SEC to reshape how private companies get traded in America. The token launched at $7.56 in November 2024. It's now traded north of $70.

Hyperliquid is a decentralized exchange for futures. It is built on its own Layer 1 blockchain (processes transactions without needing any other systems) rather than attached to Ethereum or Solana like most decentralized platforms. The thing that sets them aside from other companies is that it delivers super fast exchange speeds (sub-100-millisecond order execution) while keeping trades fully on-chain and self managed, meaning users never have to hand their assets to a company the way they did with the FTX exchange. Its two core pieces are HyperBFT which is the consensus engine, and HyperEVM, which is the smart-contract layer that lets other decentralized applications build on top of it. 

The bet underlying all of this is that it will pull meaningful trading volume away from centralized exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, and that Hyperliquid's speed advantage will put it above the rest.

In terms of the political side of things, Hyperliquid currently locks out U.S. users, operating in a gray zone which is typical of offshore style crypto platforms. That's starting to change. The Trump administration has signaled that CFTC Chairman Michael Selig is working on a framework to let Hyperliquid operate legally in the U.S., and the platform, alongside trading firm “trade[XYZ]” petitioned the SEC in August to legalize "pre-IPO perpetual" contracts. These contracts are essentially derivatives that would let retail investors speculate on private companies like SpaceX or OpenAI before they ever go public. No formal approval has landed yet, and Hyperliquid's own terms of service still prohibit U.S. participants. But this change of pace is notable given the past regulatory behavior of crypto exchanges.

In terms of Hyperliquids growth, the fundamentals, transaction volume, and HyperEVM activity have genuinely trended up alongside the price. This is a generally healthier pattern to see rather than an abrupt pump in users/market price. Whether it keeps pushing past their $22 billion-plus in market cap is what to watch out for from here.