Good morning, Asia. Here’s what’s making news in the market:
Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing. We bring you a daily summary of the top news US time, as well as an overview of market movements and analysis. For a detailed overview of the US market, see below. American.
According to a new report from Cantor Fitzgerald that started coverage of Hyperion DeFi (HYPD) and Hyperliquid Strategies (PURR), the discussion around Crypto’s next $200 billion valuation may already be starting to take shape, much like Solana from last cycle.
Kanter sees stocks as more than just passive digital asset treasury companies (DATs). Unlike traditional DATs that simply warehouse tokens and wait for prices to rise, both companies are positioned as revenue-generating participants in the Hyperliquid ecosystem through staking, validation, and market-building activities.
This operational exposure supports the valuation theory of treating Hyperliquid more like a layer 1 platform business than a speculative DeFi protocol, and mirrors the bullish case previously applied to Solana.
Under Cantor’s 10-year model, Hyperliquid generates more than $5 billion in fees annually and its valuation multiple of 50x means HYPE has a market cap of more than $200 billion, with HYPD and PURR providing public market access to its upside through active balance sheet deployment rather than simple token custody.
This comparison is important because it reframes how decentralized exchanges are valued. In the case of Solana, investors have finally stopped treating tokens as speculative throughput plays and started modeling them as financial infrastructure that can generate sustainable cash flows.
Kanter makes a similar argument for HyperLiquid, pointing to the protocol’s fee structure, where approximately 99% of trading revenue is recycled into token buybacks, and where increased trading volumes are directly tied to reduced supply rather than shareholder dilution.
Kanter argues that these fees still come from addressable markets dominated by centralized exchanges, with perpetual futures trading volume expected to exceed $60 trillion in 2025.
Even a small increase in share from these exchanges would translate into hundreds of billions of dollars in additional fees and hundreds of millions of dollars in additional annual fees, demonstrating that the growth story for hyperliquid lies in migrating existing liquidity rather than creating speculative demand.
The report also notes growing competitive concerns, particularly around rival DEX Aster, which was buoyed by Binance-related gains that briefly surpassed HyperLiquid in monthly trading volume.
Kanter argued that Astor’s activity was significantly inflated by points-based incentives and airdrop farming, and noted that the volume-to-open interest ratio was unusually high, suggesting trades were being driven by rewards rather than directional conviction. As those incentives fade, Kanter expects liquidity will return to venues offering deeper books, better execution and sustainable pricing models.
Whether the market will ultimately accept a 50x multiple for a leverage-driven trading network remains an open question, but the fact that the discussion now reflects Solana’s own evolution suggests that HyperLiquid is being judged by familiar and far more ambitious valuation criteria.
Market movements:
Bitcoin: Bitcoin was little changed around $87,572, up 0.2% hourly and 2.0% in 24 hours, but still down 4.9% on the week and 7.8% in 30 days.
Ethereum: Ether traded around $2,954, up 0.4% in the after-hours and daily, but underperformed over the long term, dropping 10.9% for the week and 4.6% over the 30-day period.
gold: Gold is trading volatile near the top of its range, and while the overall uptrend remains intact, signs of near-term depletion point to a potential pullback toward $4,200 as traders brace for central bank decisions.
Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Wednesday as Japan’s exports beat expectations, stocks were mostly firm across the region and oil prices rose on new news of Venezuela sanctions, while US stocks closed lower overnight on uncertainty over the jobs report.
Elsewhere for cryptocurrencies
- US Senator Warren calls for investigation into cryptocurrencies linked to President Trump as market structure bill drags on (CoinDesk)
- Coinbase risks “cannibalization” of virtual currencies by boosting prediction market: Mizuho (decryption)
Discover more from Earlybirds Invest
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
