Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan has dispelled rumors that the decentralized exchange (DEX) collaborates with market makers, referring to them as unfounded.
In a recent interview with Wu Blockchain, Yan clarified that Hyperliquid never accepted funds from any venture capital companies or gave any special arrangements to liquidity providers. Instead, the only liquidity pool involved is the Hyperliquid Pool (HLP), which is open to all users and fully protocol-owned.
“We had no investors and no such arrangements, and the thought was always that maybe short term it makes things a little bit more difficult, but long term it’s the right way to do it,” Yan said.
Yan shared that Hyperliquid has been entirely self-funded since its creation. He stated that the project was never about chasing profits. “I was never really doing it for money. Trading teaches you that money is really just a number,” Yan explained. All fees generated by the platform go to liquidity providers and insurance funds, with developers taking no share.
According to Yan, venture capital funding often inflates valuations without adding real value. He did not follow this model and expanded slowly but surely, investing in bringing handy features to the community. This strategy has worked, as Hyperliquid now handles over $12 billion in daily trading volume, according to data on Coingecko.
Unlike many crypto projects, Hyperliquid chose not to list on big centralized exchanges or rely on market makers to pump its numbers. Yan said the goal was to keep the project authentic and allow users to discover it naturally.
Remarkably, Hyperliquid is run by just 11 full-time employees, split between engineering and operations. Yan said the team’s small size is a strength. “Hiring the wrong person is much worse than not hiring anyone at all,” he noted, stressing the importance of culture and discipline.
Hyperliquid continues to expand with upgrades like HLP3 and deeper integrations with DeFi projects such as USDC.
