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Daniel Cheung, co-founder of Syncracy Capital, says that the original Hyperliquid HYPE token is similar to Solana’s installation before its last period, and states that the protocol has become the real center of real crypto trading. In a series of posts on X over the past month, Cheung laid out an increasingly aggressive thesis: Hyperliquid not only excels within crypto, but could emerge as a broader financial trading platform with appeal beyond the sector.
Cheng’s direct comparison came this week. “HYPE at $35 is similar to SOL at $20 before its cyclical rally,” he wrote, touting Hyperliquid as an early-stage winner before a broader market expansion. He linked this view to what he sees as the current position of the protocol market: “Hyperliquid is currently the main chain where trading activity takes place and the only chain that brings new users to crypto at the moment, given its 24/7 market offering.”
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What Cheung seems to be calling for is Solana’s move from a scrappy asset at the end of 2022 to one of the era’s biggest winners. After trading around $8 in late 2022 and still hovering near $23 in September 2023, SOL finally reached an all-time high of $295.83 in mid-January 2025.
This argument is interesting because it does not rely primarily on meme-based activity that often drives attention spans elsewhere. Cheung said Hyperliquid is “getting more media attention and respect” because its use cases are “more centered around than dogshit notes.” This, he said, would give the project a firmer footing if conditions are expected to improve again.
Over the course of several posts, Cheung has repeatedly described Hyperliquid less as an app-based crypto business and more as a category-specific trading venue. On February 28, he wrote, “One day it will become clearer that Hyperliquid is the financial trading platform of the future, and the wealth of generations will be found in the dream of this coin. Think that it has the potential to replace Robinhood, Interactive Brokers, etc. … Hyperliquid is an innovative peer.”
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That’s a big claim, and Cheung presented it as a product and market structure thesis, not just a short-term price call. His view seems to hinge on two interrelated assumptions: first, that perpetual futures will become a much larger category than current market prices, and second, that Hyperliquid will get a disproportionate share of that expansion because it already has users trading there.
He made that point clear on February 12 when he said investors were missing “two things” in the current market. The first was “HYPE is the most exciting startup, not in AI and will eventually turn COIN and HOOD.” The second was that “the crime category will be bigger than most expected,” adding that another asset, LIT, appeared to be undervalued compared to paid-for HYPE.
Cheung’s posts also make clear that timing is of the essence. On March 9, he said that the “HYPE to $120+” “will be very easy when the crypto bull market returns,” before adding, “We’re close.” This suggests that his goal is not to work on Hyperliquid in isolation, but on the basis that the renewed phase of the bull increases a relatively strong position. It is worth noting that BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes recently stated that HYPE could reach $150 by August this year.
At press time, HYPE was trading at $36.16.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
