Hyperliquid vs Nobody

At TOKEN2049 in Singapore, the founders of Aave, Ethena, and Hyperliquid were asked who they see as their biggest competitor.

• The founder of Aave said: banks.
• The founder of Ethena said: Circle.
• And the founder of Hyperliquid said: "No one. We're building something nobody else is building."

Sounds hard to believe, right? But it reminded me of a moment at Bitcoin Miami a couple of years ago. Someone pointed out that Bitcoin evolves more slowly than other cryptocurrencies precisely because it has no competitors. Back then it sounded unbelievable too. But the point was that no one had seriously positioned themselves as a "Bitcoin killer" for years. The last wave of would-be killers faded around 2017.

"Hyperliquid killers" may appear — and some are already trying. Among derivatives exchanges, I see Paradex as one with real potential. It’s not too different from Hyperliquid, but it offers zero-fee manual trading of perpetual futures and an entirely unique product: perpetual options.

Still, the answers from the Aave and Ethena founders show the question wasn’t really about possible killers of their projects, but about who they are trying to dethrone. And that’s why I like Hyperliquid’s perspective: not about replacing someone else, but about creating something entirely new. Though I still don’t know, what exactly that is. Do you?

In the meantime, just a reminder: the tokens of all three projects — AAVE, ENA, and HYPE — are available for swap at rabbit.io. No limits, always the best rates.