Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan took a strongly bullish stance on Hyperliquid and its native token HYPE after Bitwise launched a HYPE exchange-traded fund last week, arguing the market is mispricing the company.
Hougan says investors are treating Hyperliquid as little more than a perpetual futures venue—a “pricing error,” in his view—when the platform’s ambitions and business model point to something far broader.
He framed Hyperliquid as a potential global financial “super app” that could expand beyond crypto derivatives into stocks, pre‑IPO assets, commodities, foreign exchange and prediction markets, giving it multiple growth levers that the market may not yet be valuing.
As part of his valuation case, Hougan estimated Hyperliquid’s annual revenue could range roughly from $800 million to $1 billion, implying significant upside versus how the platform is currently categorized.
A central pillar of his argument is Hyperliquid’s fee structure: about 99% of trading fees are routed to HYPE token buybacks. Hougan says that mechanism aligns incentives and supports token value in a way that typical trading platforms do not, which should factor into valuation.
Despite HYPE’s recent gains—roughly 77% year‑to‑date and nearly 20% in the past week following ETF launches by Bitwise and earlier by 21Shares—Hougan maintains the token remains undervalued relative to Hyperliquid’s long‑term potential.
At the time of reporting, HYPE was trading just above $48, about 18% below last year’s all‑time high of $59. The ETF activity and the buyback-driven fee model have boosted market interest, but Hougan contends the broader “super app” opportunity still isn’t fully priced in.