The "everything exchange" known as Hyperliquid has already enjoyed a banner year — with its token surging 225% while Bitcoin remains in the red.
It's crossed the chasm from mostly being used to trade crypto, to gold, to oil, to tokenized stocks — and now, it has its eyes set on even more, according to the CEO of the largest Hyperliquid treasury company, Hyperliquid Strategies.
That CEO — David Schamis — has seen his own stock rally even more this year, with PURR up 230% as it continues to scoop up more HYPE tokens on a bet that the exchange is gearing up to now also eat into the share of prediction market giants Kalshi and Polymarket.
"People, in my opinion, are underestimating the shake up that's going to have," Schamis told Coinage in an interview from the SALT Wyoming Blockchain Symposium. "If you look at the expected fee levels, both the sort of volume capacity, trading experience and fee levels, all three of those things versus the Kalshi-Polymarket world is just completely night and day."
Prediction markets have already become one of the fastest-growing businesses in trading. But Schamis thinks Hyperliquid's existing strengths — particularly its trading experience and lower fees — could become an important advantage as more sophisticated capital enters the space.
"Do hedge funds like high fee levels and high latency, or do they like low fee levels and low latency?" he asked. "You tell me."
And even after HYPE's monster run, Schamis argues the network is only beginning to tap some of the markets that could ultimately matter most — including a much larger push into the United States.
Last week, Hyperliquid's token surged more than 25% after President Trump mentioned the project in a press conference, in which he said CFTC Chair Mike Selig was working to help allow Hyperliquid to offer services to U.S. investors.
Hyperliquid's regulatory position has long been one of the biggest questions hanging over its growth. Schamis said the team is clearly focused on figuring out how to expand its presence in the U.S., pointing to the creation of the Hyperliquid Policy Council in Washington, D.C. He described the mission in unusually simple terms.
"I've actually heard them say it in a great way, which is, you know, Jeff Yan is an American," Schamis said. "Their job is to figure out how to get him and the company back into the United States."
Existing futures giants like CME and exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange have grown increasingly vocal about the competition. At a hearing on prediction markets last week, CME CEO Terry Duffy got heated in an exchange with CFTC Chair Selig in discussing the new upstarts challenging the incumbents.