Hyperliquid Strategies: More Las Vegas Sands Than Strategy, Inc.

Summary Hyperliquid Strategies operates the leading decentralized, high-leverage trading platform, with HYPE as its native blockchain token. I do not see PURR as a "crypto treasury" company, since it only holds the token it issues and controls. I prefer to compare it to a casino chain. HYPE protocol trades at $18.04B FDV on ~$880M revenue (20.5x P/S, 28.5x EV/EBIT), representing a premium valuation for early-stage decentralized derivatives infrastructure. The valuation is fair, but industry risks include smart contract vulnerabilities, oracle manipulation, bridge exploits, and regulatory uncertainty. Given industry risks and the platform's dependency on continued trading activity, I rate both PURR and HYPE a HOLD. For some time now I have argued that the crypto world suffers from a lack of real use-cases. Except for Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) (which I keep seeing as a perfect candidate for a new global reserve currency) and the tokenization of real-world assets, I find there is a surprisingly limited number of success stories in the industry. That is not to say that cryptocurrencies are not used, of course. My only criticism is that they are mostly used for active trading (often due to their volatility). In other words, as a sort of “online casino”. Incidentally, active trading of cryptocurrencies is also the main driver behind demand for stablecoins (another interesting use case of the blockchain) and the success of companies like Coinbase Global, Inc. ( COIN ). Today, I review a crypto project that sits somewhere in the middle, as it leverages blockchain technology to enable trading within and beyond crypto: Hyperliquid Strategies Inc. ( PURR ) and the native token of its blockchain, Hyperliquid ( HYPE-USD ). PURR: Look Beyond The Treasury Narrative Hyperliquid Strategies calls itself a “Digital Asset Treasury Platform”. The second line of their company description, however, immediately specifies that the company is “focused on the hyperliquid ecosystem”. Hyperliquid Personally, I find this narrative somewhat misleading, or at the very least meaningless in the context of an investment thesis. Hyperliquid Strategies is the main issuer behind HYPE, the native token of its blockchain. Being a “treasury platform” for a digital asset you issue (and control) yourself is, in my view, hardly worth calling a business. What Hyperliquid Strategies is, in my opinion, is a nice, well-designed and profitable blockchain-based trading platform. Enter The Leader In Leveraged, Decentralized Trading Hyperliquid is a platform focused on decentralized, leveraged trading. And focus here should be on “leveraged”. Their decentralized platform features perpetual futures (perps) and its own high-performance L1 chain (HYPE). It also features a fully on-chain central limit order book, gasless/low-fee trading, sub-second finality, high leverage (up to ~50x), and self-custody. Of course, not only crypto can be traded on Hyperliquid via HYPE. Single stocks, forex and commodities are all available as well. In its focus on leveraged trading, Hyperliquid is different from “normal” DEXs (Decentralized Exchanges) like UniSwap, PancakeSwap or Raydium, which tend to focus on simple, permissionless spot trading but do not offer perps or high-leverage derivatives natively. Hyperliquid is effectively focusing on a niche: high-leverage decentralized trading. And in that, it is the undisputed world leader at the time of writing. The closest competitor is Aster DEX, which sees less than half of Hyperliquid’s volumes on any time frame at the time of writing (source is DefiLlama). A Look Under The Hood Of PURR And HYPE The term “decentralized” is widely used in the crypto world. The reality, however, is that only a minority of crypto projects are truly decentralized. Hyperliquid (the exchange) is decentralized, at least for what concerns the mechanics of the platform. Trades indeed run on the blockchain and there is no centralized clearing house or other institution that manages trades. This said, neither HYPE (its cryptocurrency) nor obviously the company behind it are truly “decentralized”, intended as not directly controllable by one single company. Regarding HYPE, the Hyperliquid team holds 23.8% of the total supply, with an additional 6% in the hands of the Hyper Foundation and 38.9% to be issued in the future (which is of course to be decided by the Hyperliquid team). With these numbers, the supply of HYPE is at the time of writing still well in the hands of the Hyperliquid team, with a total issuance of 1 billion tokens that could theoretically be increased. Since we are talking about a programmable L1, the core team (or validators/governance) has the technical ability to mint more if consensus is reached. Category Percentage Amount (Tokens) Notes / Vesting Genesis Distribution (Airdrop) 31.0% 310,000,000 To ~94k early users at launch (2024/2025). Core Contributors (Hyperliquid Team) 23.8% 238,000,000 1-year cliff + linear vesting (through ~2028). Monthly distributions ongoing. Future Emissions & Community Rewards 38.9% 388,900,000 Reserved for future incentives, staking, airdrops, etc. Hyper Foundation Budget 6.0% 60,000,000 Operational/governance use. Community Grants 0.3% 3,000,000 Small grants pool. Other / HIP-2 ~0.01% Minimal Minor allocations. To be clear, I do not see the fact that HYPE is not “truly” decentralized as an issue. But this just goes to reinforce my view that this is not any sort of exotic crypto “treasury” company, but rather a very well run company focused on highly leveraged trading. For reference, Strategy Inc. ( MSTR ), which I have seen compared to Hyperliquid Strategies at times, is actually a treasury company for Bitcoin, since it doesn’t control the BTC blockchain in any way, shape or form. Hyperliquid Is Highly Profitable, But The Treasury Narrative Blurs Its Valuation And well run it is. Hyperliquid Strategies (the company), has very lean operations (reportedly less than a dozen people), and it is based in the Cayman Islands. It also has very credible top management, with CEO David Schamis coming with extensive private equity experience and Bob Diamond (Chairman) being the former CEO of Barclays PLC ( BCS ). With such lean operations, it is no surprise that Hyperliquid is a highly profitable business. The below table summarizes financial metrics for HYPE, the company’s cryptocurrency. The source is DefiLlama. Value Annualized Revenue $880M – $1.06B Q1 2026 Gross Revenue ~$218M 30d Trading Volume $180B – $250B+ Gross Profit Margin 80–89% Cumulative Revenue > $1B+ Any attempt to evaluate PURR (the listed stock) using traditional financial metrics, however, ends here. Because Hyperliquid Strategies is designed as a “treasury platform”, its financial metrics do not reflect the operations of its decentralized exchange. Now, if I wanted to evaluate PURR as a crypto treasury company, I could tell you that: The company generates revenue (~$ 3.1 million in the nine months ended March 31, 2026) by staking HYPE, its own cryptocurrency, via a custodian. Its staking yield is currently ~2% annualized. The company actively buys or sells shares and buys or sells HYPE, managing its mNAV premium and HYPE holdings depending on what they deem is better. However, I fundamentally think all of that is irrelevant for an investment case. Whether or not this project will succeed doesn’t depend on PURR’s ability to manage a treasury of their own crypto token. It depends on whether or not people will keep using their platform for decentralized, highly leveraged trading. I Benchmark PURR Against Casino Chains I think the most sensible way to evaluate PURR is to compare it with established, mature casino chains. In a way, I see the platform as an online, asset-lite and immature version of established gambling parlors. Readers may be surprised that I am mentioning casinos, rather than trading platforms. But that’s because Hyperliquid’s selling point is specifically highly leveraged trading (up to 50x). I find this model of business resonates more with gambling than with investing, especially considering that it is very difficult to find traditional brokerages that are mostly focusing on leveraged trading. And, more importantly, financials support my comparison. A relatively new, online-based brokerage like Webull Corporation ( BULL ), for example, only features gross margins (inferred from total revenue minus cost of Services Provided) of ~13.5% (Seeking Alpha data). That’s a far cry from the ~80% gross marginality of HYPE’s token. Far more similar to Hyperliquid, at least in terms of gross margins, is Las Vegas Sands Corp. ( LVS ), the leading casino chain. The company features a staggering gross margin of 80% at the time of writing (Seeking Alpha data), and it trades at a P/S ratio of ~2.3X. The table below compares sales, market cap, P/S and EV/EBIT metrics between these three assets. Note that for HYPE, EV/EBIT is inferred from blockchain data and assumes the combined entity turns 90% of its gross margin into EBIT. Metric HYPE Protocol Las Vegas Sands Webull PURR (for reference) Total Revenue ~$880M ~$13.7B ~$607M ~$6.67M (annualized) Gross Margin 80% 80% 13.5% N/A Market Cap ~$18.04B (HYPE token FDV) ~$32B ~$3.87B ~$1.32B Implied P/S Ratio 20.5x 2.34x 6.38x ~198x, but mnAV is ~1x EV/EBIT 28.5x 13.23x 109x N/A Now, admittedly I am comparing two companies with a crypto token, which is not exactly an apples-to-apples exercise. But HYPE actually performed roughly in line with Hyperliquid Strategies (in fact, it slightly underperformed it) throughout its history, which I find hardly surprising given the entire business of PURR is based on running a decentralized trading platform on its own blockchain. Seeking Alpha I am also including in the table, purely for reference, PURR’s financials taken from their SEC filings. But given the company doesn’t report any cost of revenue and is designed as a “treasury company”, the comparison makes even less sense than one with HYPE as a token. Overall, I think the best benchmark here is HYPE, rather than the company behind it. I Am Not Sure Where the BUY Case for HYPE And PURR Is Today Beyond gross margins, the cost structure of a physical casino chain starts looking very different from that of a decentralized, asset-light trading platform focused on highly leveraged trading. That’s why in my comparison with Las Vegas Sands, I am primarily focusing on EV/EBIT as a proxy to understand how the two entities compare to each other in terms of valuation, and not P/S. My thinking is that what markets should care about, long-term, are two elements: profits (captured in the EBIT element of the metric) and growth prospects (captured by how elevated the metric is relative to the industry and peers). In terms of EV/EBIT, HYPE “trades” at a valuation roughly double that of Las Vegas Sands. I find that reasonable, since the growth prospects of this leading decentralized exchange are far better than those of a well established, mature physical Casino chain (which currently grows in the mid single digits, on a TTM basis per Seeking Alpha data). An EV/EBIT in the high 20s is also roughly in line with financial metrics that we see in the AI / Tech space, confirming how the market expects high growth from this decentralized exchange in the future. All in all, I don’t really see any market asymmetry or particularly cheap valuation that would induce me to recommend a BUY for HYPE, or for PURR. That’s why I rate them both a HOLD. Limits To My Valuation Model And More On Evaluating PURR Even if I already mentioned it, I also want to highlight once again that when I talk about EV/EBIT, I am comparing LVS, a company, with HYPE, the crypto token (and not with PURR, the issuer of HYPE). The reason is that it is easier to “infer” an “EBIT” from HYPE by looking at blockchain data than from the financial statements of a crypto treasury company. To be clear, this inferred “EBIT” is still my own calculation based on the assumption that the company behind HYPE can turn 90% of their gross profit into net profit due to their asset-light structure. This is the main limit of my valuation model. When it comes to an investment in PURR shares in its strict sense, I think the best way to value a company designed as a “treasury company” is simply looking at its mNAV. In other words, is this “box” of crypto tokens trading at a discount or at a premium against the token it contains? PURR trades at a ~1x mNAV at the time of writing, meaning it is also fairly valued like its token, in my opinion. Risks to my thesis The main risk of investing in HYPE or PURR today is that we are talking about a nascent industry that is subject to the usual crypto risks: sharp volatility, liquidity shocks, and a valuation that depends on continued trading activity, fee generation, and market confidence. If trading activity slows, token economics weaken, or sentiment turns, PURR’s valuation can compress even if the protocol still functions. There is also another layer on top of that when it comes to PURR, in that shareholders are exposed not just to HYPE, but also to management decisions, balance-sheet structure, and the possibility that capital raises or treasury actions dilute per-share upside. Hyperliquid’s own documents also flag risks tied to smart-contract bugs, bridge/security failures, oracle manipulation, and network downtime, all of which can directly impair trading, liquidations, and user trust. More broadly, crypto derivatives are still considered one of the riskiest forms of derivative exchange because of immaturity in the tech stack, smart-contract immutability, cybersecurity exposure, and regulatory uncertainty. The industry context is important and core to the reason why I am not recommending a BUY for either entity today. On the other side of the equation, PURR's higher risk can function both ways: in bull markets, it can outperform its own token (as it has done in recent months). And the trading ecosystem the company created can, of course, keep attracting traders and being a commercial success going forward, beating expectations. Conclusion Hyperliquid Strategies is the company behind a leading, highly profitable decentralized trading platform focused on high-leverage trading. This is an exciting business to be in, and a fairly interesting use of the blockchain technology. However, when it comes to both HYPE (the crypto token of the Hyperliquid’s blockchain) and PURR (the company issuing it), I think we are facing two fairly valued entities, at least based on what I can infer from blockchain data and the mNAV premium of PURR. The valuation of PURR is blurred by the fact the company positions itself as a “treasury platform” for its own token, something that I find meaningless in the context of valuing it. Ultimately, the value of HYPE (and, by extension, PURR) will depend on whether or not the Hyperliquid ecosystem will keep attracting traders, not by the tokenomics of a cryptocurrency that is in de facto control of the very same company issuing it. In this context, I think Hyperliquid Strategies should rather be seen as a nascent, online casino chain rather than a “treasury platform” of any sort. I think those that have PURR in their portfolio may benefit from holding it. However, after having analyzed the company and its crypto token, I have not seen any obvious reason to recommend a BUY based on some market asymmetry. The company is fairly valued and, given the risk within this industry, I rate it a HOLD together with its token.