Cantor Fitzgerald’s $200B Hyperliquid Thesis Just Reframed the $HYPE Trade
Cantor Fitzgerald has released a rare 62-page research report initiating coverage on Hyperliquid — and it’s one of the most serious Wall Street analyses ever published on decentralized exchange infrastructure.
The headline call: $HYPE reaching a $200 billion market cap over the next 10 years.
The model assumes: • $5B in annual revenue
• 50x earnings multiple
• Long-term scaling across perpetuals, spot, and HIP-3 markets
Rather than framing Hyperliquid as speculative DeFi, Cantor positions it as core trading infrastructure, comparable to global exchanges — a major shift in narrative.
Why Cantor Is Bullish Hyperliquid runs a decentralized perpetuals exchange on its own custom Layer-1.
In 2025 YTD alone, the protocol has processed ~$3T in volume, generating ~$874M in fees.
Key differentiator: • ~99% of fees are returned to the ecosystem via buybacks and burns, directly tying usage to token value.
Cantor argues liquidity is Hyperliquid’s most durable moat, calling it a potential “exchange of all exchanges.”
Their model assumes: • 15% annual volume growth • ~$12T in annual volume within a decade • Even a 1% market share gain from CEXs could add $600B in volume and $270M+ in annual fees
Competition remains the main risk — but Cantor believes “point tourists” eventually migrate back to venues with the deepest liquidity and best execution.
Institutional Exposure Expands Cantor also initiated Overweight ratings on Hyperliquid-focused digital asset treasuries: • Hyperliquid Strategies (PURR) — PT: $5
• Hyperion DeFi (HYPD) — PT: $4
These vehicles provide regulated equity exposure to HYPE via staking yields and currently trade at discounts to NAV, which Cantor views as an opportunity.
Meanwhile, $HYPE is still ~53% below its highs.
As one trader put it:
Bigger Picture This report signals a broader shift: traditional finance is now applying equity-style revenue models, cash-flow multiples, and infrastructure comparisons to on-chain markets.
If Cantor’s thesis plays out, decentralized perpetual exchanges may be moving from the edges of cryp to to the center of global trading.
