KEY EVENTS THIS WEEK:
1. NY Fed Manufacturing data - Monday
2. Fed Meeting Minutes - Wednesday
3. Nvidia, $NVDA, Reports Earnings - Wednesday
4. September Jobs Report - Thursday
5. Philly Fed Manufacturing data - Thursday
6. October Existing Home Sales data- Thursday
7. November Services PMI data - Friday
8. November Manufacturing PMI data - Friday
9. MI Consumer Sentiment data - Friday
10. MI Inflation Expectations data - Friday
11. Total of 14 Fed Speaker Events This Week
Buckle up folks, economic data is back.
@elonmusk You should join our cause in raising awereness. Snakes eating cats $SEC
https://t.co/2GpE7gMR5q…
https://t.co/la5Ac8Xd5W
FT2KeEtgT84mBjwCCbKgUwpk6SxXkZGCvCk85Uq9pump
[Trigger Warning]
@HyperliquidX faces some serious risks.
I've organized them in descending order with mitigation logic where applicable.
1. OpSec
2. OFAC
3. SEC
4. Market-Maker Vault Concentration
5. Performance Degradation
6. FDV to Float Ratio
1. OpSec risk
Wallet addresses well-known to be from the North Korean hacker group lazarus (funded by the DPRK government) have been testing Hyperliquid. Typically, these addresses perform tests with live funds before coordinating a hack. Their preferred method of approach is phishing. HL has only 4 validators, all running the same code.
@tayvano_ has covered this well in depth. Link below.
2. OFAC violation risk
I'm pretty sure the Hyperliquid team is based in the USA. They're operating financial software that is being used by an OFAC-sanctioned country (DPRK). They can argue that their software is open source and non-custodial, but we'll have to wait and watch. Moving from 4 validators to 16 could help their case.
3. SEC violation
The SEC could go after HL for operating as an unregistered broker.
The good thing for HL is that the next administration's SEC and Congress are positioned to be pro-crypto and freedom. The issue, however, is that the sponsors for this crypto lobby are directly competitive to HL. HL didn't take any VC funding. They're up against the big money that is economically incentivized to protect the interests of the current CEXs (Coinbase and Kraken) and L1s (Ethereum and Solana).
4. Market-maker concentration risk
The HyperLiquid Liquidity Provider (HLP) is by far the largest MM by volume. The strategy the HLP runs is closed source and managed by the HL team. A portion of platform fees and liquidation fees also goes to the HLP to encourage liquidity provision. One bug or exploit and customer funds could vanish quickly. HL could rollback the chain but the reputational damage and market cap loss for $HYPE would be catastrophic.
5. Performance degradation
Hyperliquid currently has 4 validators. They're planning on moving to 16. This will increase the decentralization and longevity of the network. However, this could introduce latency and lower throughput. I think this risk is overblown. Introducing more validators will reduce the chance of an SEC probe. @ericonomic explains this well. Link below
6. FDV to Float Risk
$HYPE's market cap is $7.9B while the FDV is $29.37B. This is risky because 72% of tokens are still waiting to be unlocked. Buy pressure would need to sustain to support such inflation. This risk, again, is not that concerning because there are no unlocks for a while. There are no external investors with locked tokens. Furthermore, a huge portion of the unlock is geared towards incentivizing the community. This is less of a risk and pretty bullish, IMO.
Conclusion
- As with all games in life, each successive enemy is stronger than the last.
- The HL team has built an incredible product. Trading perps on Hyperliquid is unparalleled in UX.
- However, the risks they face are not nothing. If they can overcome these, Valhalla is not far away.
- I would not bet against the team, but I'm struggling to see the risk-adjusted upside in bidding right now.
What do you guys think about @HyperliquidX and $HYPE right now?
@andrewmoh, @wajahat, @2lambro, @arndxt_xo, @crypto_linn, @cryptogideon_, @cryptomanran, @dynamo_patrick, @hmalviya9, @jake_pahor, @krybharat, @milesdeutscher, @rektdiomedes, @saushank_, @the_smart_ape, @thedefiplug