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In this edition, we’re covering Hyperliquid Strategies Interview hosted by Keisan and Monk with Bob Diamond and David Schamis, the founders of Hyperliquid Strategies, a firm with a singular objective: maximizing Hype per share.

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Let’s get into it.

Disclaimer: Views expressed are the author’s personal views and should not be relied upon as investment advice.

Introduction

The discussion was so engaging that we felt compelled to share a brief recap with you.

If you missed the call, now is the time to pause everything and go through this summary to understand why we are bullish on HYPE, why smart people like Keisan and Monk are bullish $HYPE and why Bob & David are also betting on $HYPE.

Bob and David are not just anyone, they are seasoned TradFi professionals with outstanding track records, having held key roles at renowned institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and Salomon Brothers.

After decades in traditional finance, a strategic investment in Circle four years ago, and having bought their first BTC back in 2015, they have long been active observers of the digital asset space. Today, however, they see a massive opportunity to fully step into our industry.

Throughout their careers in traditional finance, Bob and David concentrated on financial services businesses, the kind of businesses that generate significant amounts of cash. They invested in banks, insurance companies, and more specifically in brokers and exchanges, which gave them a strong familiarity with this type of business model.

Because of this background, it made little sense to them to buy tokens without product–market fit or revenue-generating fundamentals. For several years, they therefore chose to remain on the sidelines of the crypto industry.

That changed when some partners introduced them to the idea of HYPE. It was an exchange business they understood perfectly, supported by solid fundamentals, generating six hundred million dollars in annualized cash flow, and using those free cash flows to buy back its own token. The opportunity was clear, almost too good to ignore.

They quickly put a plan in motion. Their initial goal was to raise $300M, but they soon realized that Paradigm and other major players were exploring the same concept. Rather than compete, they decided to join forces. In a remarkably short period of time, $888 million dollars were raised, far exceeding expectations and underscoring the strong enthusiasm of traditional finance investors for Hyperliquid.

Of this amount, 65% has been raised directly in HYPE and 35% percent in cash, representing roughly $300M dollars yet to be deployed into HYPE.

They believe the potential demand for Hyperliquid Strategies will be big. The vast majority of digital asset treasury companies are focused on traditional crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. HYPE, however, stands apart because it is not easy to access. Hyperliquid’s exchange is not available to U.S. users, making it nearly impossible for regular American investors to purchase HYPE directly.

Another important factor is that Hyperliquid is the only top-ten crypto asset that is relatively new rather than a decade old. This creates a significant opportunity for them to educate investors about Hyperliquid over the coming months and years.

They also emphasize the quality of the backers behind Hyperliquid Strategies. The investor base includes highly respected names such as Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, D1 Capital, Republic Digital, and 683 Capital. With nine hundred million dollars committed at launch, they are already operating at a scale far greater than existing or potential competitors. For this reason, they are confident that the strength of their investor group and the scale of capital will allow Hyperliquid Strategies to succeed and attract strong demand.

The company announced the transaction in mid-July, with closing expected in the fourth quarter. Because the deal is subject to shareholder approval, it was structured as a sign-and-close transaction. This approach also allows contributors of Hype to exchange their holdings on a tax-free basis, avoiding taxable gains on low-cost positions.

As a result of this structure, the company has not yet acquired any Hype, nor has it received the cash proceeds. Once the transaction is finalized, management intends to deploy the majority of the cash on the balance sheet into Hype, while retaining a small portion to cover operating expenses and the ongoing requirements of being a public company.

From day one, they plan to stake their HYPE in order to generate a yield of just over 2%. After a few months, they will begin exploring and carefully considering potential DeFi opportunities on Hyperliquid that could deliver higher returns. However, these will only be opportunities that involve little to no additional risk.

According to them, any further participation in the ecosystem will only make sense if the incremental yield justifies the increase in risk exposure.

The first thing is that they are looking at Free Cash Flow, which can be a little tricky because of the circulating supply and unlocks. That being said, they feel that even if large unlocks were to happen tomorrow, $HYPE would still trade at very attractive levels, although they don’t believe that will happen.

So, when they say that $HYPE feels cheap, it is not only based on traditional valuation metrics but also on growth. First, they believe there will be a fair amount of organic growth since Hyperliquid still has market share to take from other players in the perpetuals market. Then, they pointed to Unit, which has been adding spot assets and native deposits onto Hyperliquid, saying that a lot of growth should also come from Unit and from Spot itself.

When it comes to builder codes and HIP-3, they believe we have only scratched the surface. They were impressed by how well the team has been executing and by the fact that with just a few lines of code, other front-ends or wallets can add perpetuals trading to their apps. Phantom did exactly that, which turned out to be a huge success, and the revenues from that integration alone have been impressive. Regarding HIP-3, they see opportunities across many other asset classes that could eventually trade with perpetuals.

They gave the example of someone wanting to launch a trading business with equities in a given country. Building a new exchange or trading infrastructure from scratch seems counterproductive when one could simply plug into Hyperliquid’s backbone.

They are also excited about the idea of trading pre-IPO companies in the perps market. They think this would be very compelling and gave the example of Circle: as shareholders, they would have loved to see some price discovery well before its IPO, which was priced at $31.

They summed it up by saying that the valuation of the core business alone already looks very attractive. On top of that, you add builder codes, HIP-3, and all the other things that can be built on Hyperliquid, where the protocol earns revenue in a permissionless way without taking on significant additional operating costs. It’s not like Jeff had to hire new staff for the Phantom integration, the same eleven people handled it. They closed with an anecdote: while they were preparing to go on CNBC, a well-known crypto personality told them, “You should go on CNBC and say that one day, Hyperliquid will surpass Nasdaq”. It might sound crazy but it’s not for them. 

Keisan asked about how aggressive Hyperliquid Strategies plans to be in acquiring $HYPE, drawing a comparison to Tom Lee from Bitmine, and essentially raising the question of their post-launch strategy.

They explained that as long as the company trades at a premium to NAV, they will consistently look to raise additional capital in order to acquire more $HYPE. They will also explore the use of other instruments, but the idea is to focus on tools that individual investors would not be able to access on their own. The objective is to employ specific instruments that enhance the NAV premium while always ensuring protection of the underlying asset, $HYPE.

David said that he would never say never, but the only scenario in which he could see them taking that path would be if the company were trading at a significant discount. He emphasized that he hopes this never happens, but ultimately, they are fiduciaries to the Hyperliquid Strategies shareholders.In his view, the goal of any public company is to increase book value per share for its investors, and his preferred way of achieving that is when the company trades at a premium, allowing them to issue stock and acquire more $HYPE.

Bob emphasized that $HYPE is fundamentally different from any other DAT. He pointed out that the exchange is remarkable in terms of cash generation, consistent buybacks, trading volumes, and its high efficiency with operating expenses, as well as the speed at which it has gained market share. In his view, Hyperliquid Strategies is objectively creating a valuable DAT because it will allow U.S. equities investors to gain exposure to $HYPE.

David added that there is still a tremendous amount of capital that can access U.S. equities but not crypto. Even though the crypto market has performed very well over the past decade, it remains nowhere near the size of the equity markets. For him, this is precisely why DATs need to exist and why they should trade at a premium. This is even more the case for Hyperliquid Strategies, given how difficult it is to access $HYPE. He concluded by saying that whatever premium MicroStrategy is trading at, Hyperliquid Strategies should be trading at an even higher one.

David concluded by saying that they are eager to appear on CNBC, Bloomberg, and other platforms to tell the world about $HYPE, and that they are equally excited to engage with the community and the broader Hyperliquid ecosystem. He added that if any community members have ideas related to Hyperliquid, they should feel free to reach out to them.

Following a question from Andy at HypurrFi, They explained that the macro and regulatory landscape feels much better now than it did under the Biden administration, when Gary Gensler maintained a highly repressive and negative stance toward crypto. In their view, the outlook today suggests more steps in the right direction, making it easier for innovation and progress to take place in the U.S. They noted that many of the most influential figures in the country are now openly praising crypto, while the largest companies are investing heavily in blockchain.

Against this backdrop, it is very difficult not to feel optimistic about the industry.

Conclusion

Bob and David made it clear why they see Hyperliquid Strategies as a unique opportunity. To them, $HYPE combines strong free cash flow, ongoing buybacks, rapid market share growth, and limited accessibility for U.S. investors, factors that create a compelling foundation for demand.

This conviction is reinforced by the $888M raise backed by firms such as Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, D1 Capital, Republic Digital, and 683 Capital, giving the company scale and credibility from day one.

Their strategy is straightforward: stake HYPE to generate a modest yield, then carefully evaluate DeFi opportunities that could enhance returns, provided risks remain limited. On valuation, they view HYPE as attractive both on free cash flow metrics and future growth drivers like Unit, Spot, builder codes, and HIP-3, with the Phantom integration highlighted as proof of Hyperliquid’s efficiency.

Capital deployment will depend on market conditions. As long as the company trades at a premium to NAV, they will seek to raise more capital to acquire HYPE. Selling, Bob stressed, would only be considered if they were ever to trade at a discount.

Finally, they argued that Hyperliquid Strategies should trade at an even higher premium than MicroStrategy given the difficulty of accessing HYPE directly, and they expressed confidence in the improving U.S. regulatory and macro environment, where crypto is now receiving recognition from leading figures and institutions.

Hope you enjoyed reading this interview.

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