And just like that, Wall Street has taken a microscope to one of our darlings: Hyperliquid ($HYPE).

Earlier this week, Cantor Fitzgerald released this juicer of a 62-page report on Hyperliquid and I read the whole damned thing.

First off, it’s pretty good.

Second, there is a ton of information in it.

In turn, I wanted to put together the Cliff’s Notes blog post on the report so that you have a digestible 10-minute reader at your disposal if you don’t want to dive into the full report. In other words, if you’ve been curious about Hyperliquid, but have zero desire to sift through Cantor’s equity research report, this breakdown is for you.

What Makes Hyperliquid Tick?

I’ve been covering Hyperliquid since it launched and I use it every day -- and the first thing you need to understand is that Hyperliquid is not just another DEX. It’s a purpose-built, high-performance trading platform operating on a custom Layer-1 blockchain and absolutely slaps. The small founding team bootstrapped the network with no outside capital, creating a structure that feels far closer to our overarching web3-ethos rather than a Silicon Valley start-up.

Everything happens on-chain: orders, settlements, margins, liquidations. And it’s shockingly fast. Hyperliquid processes over 200,000 orders per second with ~0.2 second finality, while fees run 95–99% lower than trading on a CEX like Binance.

The native token, $HYPE, powers security, governance, staking, and --crucially -- its economic flywheel. As of today, it trades around $25, down from recent highs in the $40s.

With an FDV near $15.8 billion, HYPE sits at roughly 18× trailing twelve-month “free cash flow” (if you treat protocol fees as FCF). But the real story is here:

99% of all protocol fees are used to buy back and burn HYPE.

This is critical to note because this is all baked into the system. In a market full of tokens searching for utility, HYPE includes scarcity-as-a-feature directly into its economics.

Cantor calls Hyperliquid “the exchange of all exchanges.” It’s not entirely hyperbole.

The Numbers That Matter

According to the report:

• $2.9 trillion perp volume in 2025 YTD (+450% year-over-year)

• $874 million in generated fees

• Burns equal to 2.6% of total supply (or 5% of circulating tokens)

Hyperliquid continues to chip away at CEX dominance. For context: centralized exchanges handled about $60 trillion in perp volume this year. HYPE is still small in comparison, but it’s closing the gap rapidly. And in the near-term, volatility has increased. Recent liquidations have been brutal, with a largest single wipeout of $11.08M on HYPE longs -- an extreme washout for bullish positions. Despite the short-term pain, long-term structure is largely intact.

Perps aren’t going anywhere. They continue to outpace spot trading by a wide margin across the crypto industry.

Competition: Aster and Lighter

Cantor acknowledges that competitors like Aster (Binance-associated) and Lighter (a16z-backed) temporarily surpassed Hyperliquid’s volume in November. But the report strongly questions the quality of that liquidity:

• Wash trading

• Points farming

• Airdrop-chasing “tourists”

In other words: incentives, not genuine trading demand.

Hyperliquid still offers deeper liquidity, better execution, and real traders - not mercenaries gaming incentive programs.

Technically, price action shows increased sell pressure below $29.50. If that support breaks, lower levels are plausible. But none of that meaningfully erodes Hyperliquid’s underlying thesis.

HYPD: Ecosystem Play for Active Builders

For those who want exposure to Hyperliquid in public markets, Hyperion DeFi ($HYPD) is the “builder” vehicle.

It holds 1.72 million HYPE (about $46 million at current prices) and trades around $2.95 today. Cantor rates it Overweight with a $4 price target, citing its 1.14x mNAV premium -- suggesting the market expects future capital raises and more HYPE accumulation.

What makes HYPD compelling:

• Runs a Hyperliquid validator generating $1.2 million/year

• Earns ~$1.6 million/year in staking rewards

• Partners with Felix to operate HIP-3 markets, including synthetic perps, producing ~$500,000/year

Led by Hyunsu Jung (ex-DARMA Capital), with deep derivatives and market-structure experience.

PURR: Exposure at a Discount

On the flip side, Hyperliquid Strategies (PURR) offers a “pure exposure” play and at a discount.

Following its merger with SONN and a $1.65 billion PIPE, PURR now holds:

• 12.6 million HYPE (~$340 million)

• $300 million in cash

It trades around $3.47, which is actually up recently. Cantor rates it Overweight with a $5 target. The big detail is that it trades at 0.77x mNAV, which means you’re buying HYPE exposure for less than the value of the underlying tokens.

Staking earns roughly $8 million/year, and its massive balance sheet gives it optionality to launch its own HIP-3 markets (requiring a 500,000 HYPE stake).

The Big Bull Case: $125 Billion FDV

Cantor’s long-term model is pretty monster. Under conservative assumptions:

• 17% perp market share

• 18% spot market share

• Annual fees exceeding $5 billion

A 1% CEX share shift equating to $272 million in new fees with a 25x multiple on that revenue = $6.8 billion value. Add in ongoing buybacks reducing supply (577 million to 145 million tokens in their projection), and HYPE’s long-term price could plausibly reach the hundreds, with FDV approaching $125 billion. Some analysts even think $200 billion is possible if HIP-3 fulfills its ambitions.

Is it guaranteed? No. Is the flywheel structurally sound? Yes.

Why This Matters

In one of the worst crypto markets to-date, Hyperliquid stands out as a rare example of genuine, infrastructure-level innovation. And it’s steadily eating away at CEX market share while directly returning economic value to tokenholders.

HYPD and PURR offer an on-ramp for traditional investors who want exposure without navigating wallets or on-chain tooling.

To me, the industry needs more protocols like this -- useful, efficient, aligned. If the burn passes and HIP-3 expands as expected, Hyperliquid could mark a meaningful shift in on-chain market structure.

I hope this summary helped you get a bit more informed.