PodcastEmpireJeff Yan

Jeff Yan On Hyperliquid’s Plan To Bring All Finance Onchain

Jeff Yan presents Hyperliquid as neutral public infrastructure and argues that onchain order books and priority fees can limit the power of intermediaries and reduce the advantage of better-resourced traders. He sees spot, perpetuals, and options as complementary products, while portfolio margin depends on the harder task of bringing collateral assets onchain. The host notes rising attention to HIP3, a proposed US offering pending regulatory approval, and a 13-fold increase in real-world-asset open interest.

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Key Takeaways

Jeff Yan frames Hyperliquid as neutral public infrastructure rather than a direct competitor, arguing that onchain order books avoid giving a privileged intermediary control over a market function with substantial power. He also says priority fees are intended to limit the advantage of infrastructure investment so traders with less technology can compete on market insight.

Yan sees spot, perpetuals, and options as complementary parts of a trading suite: spot provides the asset, perpetuals offer a leveraged linear vehicle, and options provide a convex vehicle for traders whose needs perpetuals may not meet. He describes options as a distinct product opportunity on Hyperliquid.

The host points to rising attention to HIP3 and a 13-fold increase in Hyperliquid real-world-asset open interest, from $300 million in January to $3.9 billion. Separately, Payward, Kraken’s parent, said it wants to use HIP3 Star to offer Hyperliquid to U.S. citizens, pending regulatory approval.

TECHNOLOGY

Public Infrastructure — Jeff Yan frames Hyperliquid as public infrastructure, like the internet or Linux, rather than a direct competitor in a crowded field. He argues that a neutral system could benefit existing financial platforms when its technology suits their use cases.

“it is a lot more akin to like public infrastructure something like the internet or linux or something like that where it's you don't you don't need like 10 different…”—

Options Demand — Jeff Yan argues that perpetuals do not meet every trader’s need to express a market view; some users may prefer options. He sees options as a distinct product opportunity on Hyperliquid.

“I think that perps by and large satisfy a lot of users, but they're genuinely users who see the perps, you know, trade perps, but just say like, you know…”—

Onchain Order Books — Jeff Yan says Hyperliquid’s onchain order books reflect the principle that no privileged central intermediary should run an order book. He argues that operating one gives its operator substantial power.

“this actually comes from the principle that order books should not be run by a privileged central intermediary which like by and large is still how order books are run…”—

ECONOMY

US Access — The host says Payward, Kraken’s parent company, publicly announced plans to use HIP3 Star to offer Hyperliquid to US citizens, pending regulatory approval.

“and payward the parent company of kraken already publicly announced that pending regulatory approval they want to use that to offer hyperliquid to u…”—

MARKETS

RWA Open Interest — The host reports that open interest in real-world assets on Hyperliquid rose from $300 million in January to $3.9 billion, a 13-fold increase.

“on the topic of HIV3 that has clearly been one of the growth stories of hyperliquid and open interest of real world assets is up from 300 million in Jan…”—

Priority Fees — Jeff Yan says priority fees aim to help markets clear more efficiently, so incidental technological advantages do not outweigh traders’ market insight. The goal, he says, is to make markets more accessible to participants who invest less in infrastructure.

“i generally think the motivation behind priority fees is like can we find a more efficient way for markets to clear so that the alpha that's associated with like a…”—

Brazilian Order Data — Jeff Yan notes that Brazil’s order-book feed can identify the broker associated with many orders. He cites this as an example of how order-book disclosures vary across markets.

“If you look at markets in Brazil, for example, it's a very interesting thing where whether intentional or not, the order book feed also publishes which broker many of the…”—

Intro

Sean O’Devans opens by thanking Jeff Yan and the Hyperliquid community, then asks how the year’s launches fit the goal of building tools capable of housing all finance.

Building The House Of All Finance

Yan says Hyperliquid aims to be useful infrastructure for builders, using a small set of composable primitives; he describes HIP-4 options as complementary to perpetuals and notes its potential remains to be realized.

Is Hyperliquid More Than An Exchange?

Yan argues Hyperliquid is better understood as neutral public infrastructure, like the internet or Linux, than as a direct competitor to exchanges; HIP-3 Star adds opt-in controls for builders such as Kraken, subject to regulatory approval.

Bringing Institutions Onto Hyperliquid

Yan welcomes the technical challenge of scaling as usage grows and says the protocol’s primitives should keep evolving to meet builders’ needs rather than becoming fixed.

Better Trading Through Fees And Options

Yan frames priority fees as a way to reduce the advantage of costly latency races, making markets more accessible and allowing traders to express their own market insight without massive infrastructure investment.

Do Transparent Markets Deliver Better Execution?

Yan argues transparent onchain order books can improve fairness and execution by giving participants broad access to market information; he cites evidence that visible order flow can help liquidity providers price and absorb trades.

Keeping Hyperliquid’s Community Focused

Yan encourages the community to stay focused on helping end users, remain humble, and judge success by whether useful new products are built and adopted.

What Comes Next For Hyperliquid?

Yan sees spot, perpetuals, and options as complementary trading products, while emphasizing that portfolio margin’s usefulness depends on getting collateral assets onchain; the host highlights HIP-3’s rapid growth in real-world-asset markets.

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Important Disclaimers

Not Investment Advice: For education only — not financial, tax or legal advice.

AI-Generated: Made by AI from source transcripts and may contain errors.

No Guarantees: Past performance does not predict future results; investing carries risk.

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