We now have the foundation pretty set for a new cycle. Hyperliquid for perps, Solana for spot experimentation, fomo to onboard retail, corpo chains and services incoming to onboard institutions and more resilient DeFi ecosystems around the board. Stablecoin issuers will be fighting for distribution and we’ll likely get some great neobank products that offer decent yield as a result. Lenders like Morpho also have real BD pitches now with case studies like Robinhood and Coinbase. We’ve abstracted away a lot of the friction and UX fragmentation for all types of participants. Crypto related verticals are now constantly being shilled and discussed during presentations from SP500 companies. Friendliest regulatory regime we’ve ever seen, and new leadership at places like the SEC and CFTC have needed some time to familiarize themselves with the talking points. Really think a lot of stuff has been bubbling and all we’re missing is the vibes.

Competing with tradexyz is very hard but it should be very hard. Core Hip-3 markets aren’t really experiments anymore, there are real traders throwing decent size around. If you want to be playing the game you should be held to the highest standard.

On Hyperliquid vs. general purpose blockchains like Solana / MegaETH While I’m still bullish on DeFi composability, for Perp DEXs, I’ve moved deeper and deeper into the camp that composability is not a big deal (at least for most potential use cases). What more can you offer that Hyperliquid won’t be able to add through core + EVM? Do those applications actually matter? Perps seem to be the sink and nobody is willing to sacrifice a worse perps experience for added composability to ecosystems that don’t have much else to offer for the typical trader. Seems to have become more of a buzzword to justify (in select cases) worse products. In a way, builder codes, hip-3 / 4, portfolio margin etc. get you to the same outcome (third party participation and the ability to use your collateral) without the added complexity. Also factor in exploit ripple effects like we saw with Drift and Aave and the value proposition looks even less attractive. Happy to reconsider just a question I’ve been thinking about.