Key Takeaways
- Maelstrom’s Arthur Hayes revealed HYPE as the fund’s top altcoin holding with a $150 valuation target
- The token jumped 11.3% over 24 hours to approximately $35, significantly outpacing Bitcoin’s 3.1% increase
- According to Hayes, Hyperliquid allocates 97% of platform revenue toward HYPE token buybacks
- Reaching the $150 target requires annualized revenue of $1.4 billion β a milestone already achieved in August 2025
- Hayes’ conservative valuation scenario still prices HYPE around $58, representing 75% upside from current trading levels
The Hyperliquid native token HYPE experienced a sharp rally exceeding 11% on Monday following Arthur Hayes’ announcement that the asset now represents Maelstrom’s most significant altcoin allocation.
The Maelstrom chief investment officer released an extensive analysis outlining his $150 valuation target for HYPE, describing Hyperliquid as the leading decentralized exchange for perpetual futures contracts.
HYPE reached approximately $35 during the 24-hour trading window. Meanwhile, Bitcoin recorded a more modest 3.1% gain during the identical timeframe, momentarily testing resistance above $70,000 before retracing.
Over the trailing twelve months, HYPE has delivered returns exceeding 100%. Bitcoin, meanwhile, has declined approximately 15% during the same window. Despite recent strength, HYPE continues trading over 40% beneath its peak of $59, recorded in September 2025.
Hayes’ Investment Thesis on HYPE
According to Hayes, Hyperliquid stands as the highest revenue-generating cryptocurrency protocol outside the stablecoin sector. He emphasizes that 97% of platform earnings fund token buybacks directly from secondary markets.
“No other project in all of crypto hands as much money back to token holders as Hyperliquid,” Hayes stated in his Substack publication.
Reaching his $150 projection demands that Hyperliquid expand its 30-day annualized revenue to $1.4 billion β a benchmark the protocol already achieved during August 2025. The valuation also requires a market re-rating from approximately 12x earnings to around 25x.
Hayes contends that Hyperliquid doesn’t require expansion of the broader crypto derivatives sector to achieve this milestone. Capturing an additional 3.97 percentage points of market share from centralized platforms would suffice.
HIP-3 Framework and Revenue Expansion
Hayes identifies HIP-3, Hyperliquid’s permissionless perpetuals creation system, as a critical catalyst for future expansion. Market participants who stake 500,000 HYPE tokens gain the ability to deploy new trading pairs utilizing the platform’s infrastructure.
Initial offerings encompass traditional markets including silver, gold, the Nasdaq 100 index, and the S&P 500. Hayes reports that HIP-3 trading volumes already contribute nearly 10% of total Hyperliquid revenue just four months post-launch.
His financial projections anticipate 160% HIP-3 revenue expansion across a six-month horizon. He additionally highlights HIP-4, a permissionless prediction market capability, as a potential positive catalyst excluded from his baseline forecast.
Addressing token dilution concerns, Hayes observes the development team released approximately 20% of allocated tokens during November and December 2025, subsequently reducing distributions to roughly 1% in January and February 2026.
Under a conservative scenario applying only a 12x earnings multiple, Hayes calculates HYPE’s fair value near $58. At publication time, HYPE exchanged hands at $33.24.
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