Hyperliquid HYPE trades at 15x earnings as Grayscale sees $1B revenue

HYPE traded near $55, down 0.3 percent in 24 hours, as Grayscale Research called the token cheap at 15 to 18 times forward earnings. The firm's new "earnings per token" framework, modeled on earnings per share for equities, projects the decentralized derivatives exchange could generate roughly $1 billion in annual revenue by 2027, a gain of about 20 percent over 2025.

"On that basis, we think it looks cheap," Grayscale said, citing a rebound in crypto trading volumes and a new stablecoin partnership tied to Hyperliquid's Aligned Quote Asset version 2 (AQAv2) infrastructure as the main drivers. Hyperliquid does not issue shares; it uses trading revenue to reward token holders through mechanisms such as fee burns.

Grayscale estimates HYPE's circulating supply of approximately 270 million tokens will reach 270 million to 310 million by the end of 2027, depending on how quickly core contributors unlock vested tokens. Those unlock at roughly 550,000 HYPE per month, a pace the firm's model multiplies up to five times in its higher-supply scenario. Combined, the projections imply an earnings-per-token figure of $3.25 to $3.75.

The bullish call lands a day after a pricing anomaly in an SK Hynix-linked perpetual contract on Hyperliquid triggered over $80 million in liquidations across nearly 1,000 accounts, according to on-chain analyst LookOnChain. The incident began when a single SK Hynix share traded at a discount of about 30 percent to the stock's previous close in South Korea's thinly traded pre-market session Tuesday. That erroneous print was reflected in xyzSKHYNIX, a perpetual built by Trade.xyz under Hyperliquid's HIP-3 framework, sending the contract down nearly 18 percent within minutes even as the underlying stock recovered most of its value shortly after.

The $80 million liquidation event

Trade.xyz said on X it would "cover liquidation losses attributable to the anomalous portion of the move," a response that shows the risks of Hyperliquid's fast-growing market for stock-linked perpetual futures. Grayscale flagged weaker-than-expected network revenue growth and faster-than-expected token supply growth as the key risks to its forecast, noting "Hyperliquid, the breakout success story in perpetual futures, is not a traditional business."

On Stocktwits, HYPE was among the top trending tickers, with retail sentiment in the 'Bearish' zone and chatter at 'high' levels over the past day. One user argued that selling HYPE is like selling Apple stock into a buyback, since it flows back to Hyperliquid, and made the case that leveraged on-chain perpetuals represent the future of trading given 24/7 markets and no weekend gap risk.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.